Mass Effect 1: It begins
by MoonLight43
Summary: Shepard never has time for a personal life, it is always the mission first. With Saren, the geth, prothean beacons and a shadowy threat of galactic extinction it would seem to be even less so. But maybe without even trying among all that, he might actually find a companion through it all without realising. Rated M to be safe. M/M relationship don't like, don't read.
1. Chapter 1: Eden Prime

**Important AN: ****Hey everyone it's been a long long time. So here is a new story of mine, its a Garrus/MShep pairing so if that offends you or whatever then just turn back now, nobody is forcing you to read it. I hope this goes ok as it's my first serious attempt at a full story, if my grammar/punctuation gets that bad then please let me know and I'll go over the chapter and try to correct it as it isn't my strong suit. Just be nice about it though, if you are rude I won't bother. Another thing is if your looking for lots of romance it isn't going to happen for awhile, I need to build things up and anytime I read a new story about a pairing that just seem to instantly be in love with one another for no reason is annoying. Its going to be mostly friendship/attraction in ME1 with more of a romance nearer the end as it will lead on to what I want to do in ME2 nicely. Plus I think they'd both be stubborn enough that it'll take a game for them to get anywhere ^^. The bare bones of my Shepard are colonist, sole survivor, adept and paragon. You'll get a more detailed background in a couple of chapters, though I'll save some for later in the story as well if I don't get carried away. I know it's a bit rough around the edges as I'm not great when it comes to writing but I hope you like the story. One last thing this, the one shot I wrote is just that, a one shot, the Shepard in that ended up abit too much like a ME1 Kaidan for me and I want my Shepard to be more of the paragon badass that we all know and love. They will be some more emotional/sensitive parts but it's not going to define my Shepard's character. So that is it I think and enjoy! :)**

Mass Effect 1: It Begins

Chapter 1: Eden Prime

The Normandy SR-1 an Alliance starship, the first of her kind co-developed by both the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy, funded by the Council with state of the art stealth systems floated through space. Her sleek, smooth design hid the power that was the drive core, an experimental technology that powered the stealth systems. Though it may not be true cloaking if one was to look out a observation window, it was the closest to it possible with the current technology. It hid the heat signature of the ship and other devices so that to other ship sensors they would appear to be nothing there, hence the term 'stealth system'.

Commander Daniel Shepard strode through the Normandy towards the front of the ship as Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, or 'Joker' as he'd heard someone refer to him as prepared for the jump through the mass relay. He passed Dr Chakwas and the navigator Pressley on his way up to the front and came to a stop just inside the cockpit to jokers left. Commander Shepard stood at 5'9, of medium build, not overly muscular, though he has some it probably lent more to the lean side of the scale than muscular. He has a pale skin colour, not unhealthily so, short messy dark brown hair, dark green eyes and was wearing his familiar N7 jumpsuit. To his right stood the turian and spectre Nihlus Kryik a agent of the Citadel Council sent to oversee the Normandy's first run after completion. He stood taller than Shepard, as was standard for turians it wasn't that hard, and wore his dark black armour with red highlights. His facial marking are of a pure white colour that filled most of his face, though under that is the dark colouring of his plates. As Joker finished his checks and the Normandy approached the blue glow of the mass effect relay, you could feel as the ship almost tensed up for the jump and then they were gone, jumping across the vast emptiness of darkspace to another system.

After exiting the jump joker started to list off the status of the systems "Thrusters… check. Navigation…. Check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift… just under 1500 K."

"1500 Is good. Your captain will be pleased." Nihlus stated before he left the cockpit.

"I hate that guy." Joker muttered.

Kaidan spoke up "Nihlus gave you a compliment.. so you hate him?" Kaidan Alenko has black hair slightly thicker than the standard military cut, light brown eyes and is classed as a sentinel for his biotic and tech abilities. Biotics are a result of exposure to the dust form of element zero in utero, and as a result develop nodules of element zero in their bodies which allow them to create mass effect fields to various effects.

Joker and Kaidan then began to argue about the motives for Nihlus being aboard the Normandy, with joker being the pessimist saying that there must be some secret agenda and Kaidan being more optimistic with that they just want to keep an eye on the Normandy to see how it performs.

"You see a conspiracy everywhere joker" Shepard smirked.

Before Joker could go any further Captain Andersons voice came over the comm system asking for the status report, and after Joker had embarrassed himself talking about Nihlus who had already arrived, Anderson told him to tell Shepard to meet him in the comm room for a debriefing.

When Shepard arrived in the debriefing room Nihlus was already there, he turned to Shepard and began to speak.

"Commander Shepard. I was hoping you'd get here first. It will give us a chance to talk."

"What about" Shepard queried.

"This world Eden Prime, I've heard it quite beautiful."

"I've never been, it's supposed to be breathtaking."

"But you know of it. It's become something of a symbol for your people hasn't it? Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them. But how safe is it, really?"

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Your people are still newcomers Shepard. The galaxy can be a very dangerous place. Is the alliance really ready for this?"

Just then Captain Anderson walked into the room, the dark skinned older man wearing his formal Alliance uniform broke the conversation.

"I think we should tell the commander what is really going on now." He stated.

Nihlus walked forward, "This mission is much more complex than a simple shakedown run."

"What's so important that it had to be kept in the dark?" Shepard spoke, slightly annoyed that he'd been let out of the loop.

Anderson answered Shepard. "We're making a covert pick-up on Eden Prime. That's why the Normandy was needed with its stealth systems working."

"Why the secrecy Captain?" Shepard questioned.

"The information came down from the top, strictly need to know basis. The scientist on Eden Prime discovered a beacon of some kind, a prothean beacon."

"Didn't they go extinct over 50,000 years ago?"

Nihlus spoke next, "The mass relays and the citadel are prothean technology left behind, even our ship drives are based off their technology."

"When humanity discovered the prothean technology on mars our own technology was jumped forward 200 years, the changes this beacon could bring now may start another such leap. Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to study it properly, so we're bringing back to the citadel." Anderson cut in excitedly.

"This goes beyond just human interests, commander. This could affect every species in Council space with the information found from the beacon." Nihlus said shortly, annoyed at being cut across.

"Well with how important this beacon is, we could use all the help we can get." Shepard spoke to Nihlus.

"The beacon isn't the only reason I'm here, Shepard." Nihlus stated as he stepped to stand next to Shepard.

"Nihlus is here to evaluate your performance, he wants to see what you can do." Anderson said.

"What's going on Captain?" Shepard questioned.

"The alliance wants a bigger authority in the intergalactic community. The Spectres represent those qualities, are representatives of the council. If a human is accepted it shows where we have come since joined the community." Anderson spoke getting livelier as he went on.

"Not a lot would have survived what you went through on Akuze, it shows great will to survive, a good talent to have. Which is why I have put your name forward to be considered for a position in the Spectres" Nihlus spoke in.

"Why would you do this for me?" Shepard asked.

"We see your potential, what you have to offer the galaxy and the Spectres. We are an elite group, the right hand of the Council, all I care about is that you can do the job. You have the necessary skills and I think that you might make a valuable addition to the Spectres. Being a human has nothing to do with it, even if others focus on that point."

"What do I need to do?" Shepard was surprised, even with what Nihlus had said this would still make an impact on people. It was quite an honour.

"Eden Prime will be one of several missions together where I'll be able to see you in action Shepard. Your evaluation needs to be thorough if we are to proceed." Nihlus responded.

After Anderson told Shepard the specifics of what he would be doing on Eden Prime, he asked some questions to get all the specifics so he could compensate for being left out until the last minute. The discovery of the beacon could be monumental once it was studied, an exciting time. But it was not going to be as smooth as they hoped when a distress transmission came through from Eden Prime and everything went into overdrive. Everyone got their gear and made their way to the cargo bay where Nihlus jumped out at the first drop point to scout the area and Shepard and his team, consisting of Kaidan and Jenkins went at the second.

After losing Jenkins to some attack drones they made their way to where the beacon hopefully still stood, looking out at the devastation that had happened to the colony as they made their way along a cliff into a wooded area. Taking out another group of attack drones on their way through the wooded area they heard gunfire from up ahead and sped up to reach the fight. When they emerged through the group of trees they saw a female soldier in white and pink armour taking out two drones, before diving behind a boulder for cover as two unusual looking humanoid mechs seemed to impale a human on a spike before going after the soldier. Shepard threw his arm out, biotics flaring and one of the mechs went flying backwards into a rock, the soldier unloading her rifle into it. Then Shepard lifted the other one with his biotics and Kaidan threw a concentrated ball of energy at the mech, commonly known as a warp, which shredded it. After that Shepard talked to the female soldier, know known as Ashley Williams, who has black hair tied back in a ponytail and a light skin tone. Her squad had been patrolling the area to guard the beacon before the attack started and they had been killed. After finding out that the 'mechs' were actually the geth from beyond the veil they set off after the discovery site to find the beacon missing. After taking out what had once passed as a group of people, but now turned into something pumped full of cybernetics they found some survivors hiding in a building. The Dr told them that the beacon had been moved to the spaceport, so after getting them to stay hidden they set off after it hoping to get their before the geth did. Shepard reached Nihlus over the comm and filled him in on what they knew so far, he told them that he'd meet up with them at the spaceport.

Nihlus approached the spaceport in a crouch, assault rifle held at the ready. He crouched behind a nearby crate as he heard movement up ahead. Taking a breath to prepare himself he rounded the crate, assault rifle raised to take down a geth and stopped at what met his gaze. Turned away from him was a turian, with grey plate colourings, armour, a black material covering his fringe and a prosthetic arm. Even before the turian turned Nihlus knew he would have piercing cybernetic blue eyes and no facial markings.

"Saren?" He said disbelievingly, mandibles opened in shock for a moment.

"Nihlus." Was the calm reply.

"What are you doing here? This isn't your mission Saren." He walked forward to stand by the other turian.

"The council thought you could use some help with this one." He placed a gloved hand on Nihlus's shoulder before walking by him.

"But we didn't even know about the attack till we got here… The situations bad, why are the geth even here?" Raising his head to observe the area.

"Don't worry, everything is going to be fine." Saren pulled out a shotgun as he spoke, aiming it at the back of Nihlus's head.

Just as he pulled the trigger a faint biotic barrier sprung into existence between the two of them, absorbing the worst of the damage of the shotgun blast. Nihlus however was still knocked to the ground by it as the barrier shattered. Shepard, Kaidan and Ashley ran up onto the spaceport deck, Shepard body shimmered from the quick use of his biotics to throw up the barrier, Ashley and Kaidan took aim at Saren and fired. Saren dove backwards out of the way and ran to the other end of the deck, geth appeared covering his retreat with gunfire as he disappeared around the bend. Kaidan who was closest to Nihlus grabbed him to pull him out of the way behind a crate as Ashley and Shepard took cover nearby, covering Kaidan with their own fire as he got Nihlus out of the way. Shepard focused his biotics and his body flared with the blue energy as he swept his arm out, throwing a condensed orb flew towards where the geth were hiding. As it struck the crate it exploded outwards into a singularity, with a gravity field that pulled the geth from their hiding spot into the air helplessly and Ashley took them out with her assault rifle. As the last one emerged to take a shot Kaidan used an overload which disabled its shields and left it stunned, using his pistol he finished it off where it stood.

After checking to make sure there was no more enemies Shepard and Ashley went over to Kaidan who was checking Nihlus over, he looked up as they approached and spoke.

"He should be fine, that barrier took the brunt of it. He'll have a nasty bruise but otherwise no problems I think." He finished with a relieved sigh.

"Good we got here just in time, but why did he let his guard down to get in that position?" Shepard wondered.

"Well he should be able to tell us that himself, he seems to be coming around."

Nihlus then proceeded to let out a grown, a hand coming up to cover his face. Shepard knelt down beside Kaidan, as Ashley watched their backs to make sure they didn't get surprised by more geth.

"Nihlus its Shepard, are you hurt?" Shepard asked.

Nihlus removed his hand and focused on his face before replying. "I'm fine, what happened?"

"The other turian pulled out a gun and tried to shot you in the head just as we arrived, I threw up a weak barrier which absorbed most of the damage but it still managed to knock you down unconscious." Shepard explained.

"Saren? Did the turian have a grey plate colouring? Similar armour?" Nihlus Questioned.

"Yeah that was him, I assume you know him from the way you were stood?"

"I don't believe it, why would he do that? But I heard the shot right behind my head, there was nobody else there to pull the trigger, It had to be him. Where is he now?"

"There's somebody over there behind those crates!" Ashley shouted. Shepard turned around pistol outstretched as Kaidan mimicked him, Nihlus pulling himself to his feet in a surprising burst of speed as a figure emerged. It turned out to be a dockworker who'd managed to survive the attack, as he'd been slacking off sleeping behind the crates. He'd seen everything, including Saren and Nihlus talking before Saren had attempted to kill him, and then taking off towards the main bigger spaceport. Nihlus retrieved his assault rifle from where it had fallen and they all made their way to the transport that would take them over to the main spaceport, efficiently taking out the geth that guarded it.

Saren was furious that he had been bested. He hadn't managed to kill Nihlus he was sure of that, and that left him a respected Spectre and that ragtag group of humans as witness to him being there. He would have to find out more about those annoying humans. He faced one of the geth troopers and spoke his voice low in his anger.

"Place the explosives, leave no evidence of us being here."

The geth turned away and Saren looked at the object of their being here, the prothean beacon. He strode forwards to place himself directly in front of it. Then there was some force emitted from the beacon as it picked Saren up and he rose into the air.

Shepard and the others arrived at the spaceport and they saw a geth leaning over some sort of charge on the level above them. They could see other geth around the level as well, quite possibly setting other charges.

"They're going to blow the place sky high!" Ashley exclaimed.

"Then we need to stop them fast, Kaidan you disable the charges and we will cover you." Shepard spoke turning to Kaidan.

"Got it Commander." Kaidan nodded.

"Saren has got a lot to answer for." Nihlus muttered, expression dark.

The group worked their way onto the upper level taking out the few geth around the charge. Kaidan knelt to focus on disabling the first explosive and the others took cover, firing at the approaching geth. Shepard threw out a great shockwave of biotic energy which knocked the group of geth on the walkway flying, Nihlus took out another couple with precise headshots before turning to Shepard.

"I'll go around the other side and we can flank them." He said quickly.

"Right, we'll keep working on the charges." Shepard replied. Nihlus didn't wait for anything else and took off onto the walkway staying low, Shepard providing him with gunfire and biotics till he got over to the other side.

"This ones disabled commander." Kaidan spoke up.

"Lets move on to the next one."

With Shepard and Ashley keeping the geth pinned down with their gunfire and biotics, Nihlus was able to take them out from the side quickly enough as they had nowhere else to go. They moved down the side quickly, taking out the geth as Kaidan disabled the charges. Once they had made a circuit of the upper level determining that there was no bomb left they moved onto the only other area of the spaceport left, where the prothean beacon must be held if it was still here. As they rounded the corner they saw more geth taking up positions, Shepard and the team did the same. Ashley pulled out a sniper rifle to deal with the further enemies, peaking out from behind cover and Shepard, Kaidan and Nihlus dealt with the rest. As more of the husk like beings pulled themselves from their spikes, Shepard lashed out with his arm, quick bursts of biotic energy throwing the husks off their feet over the side of the spaceport. Nihlus and Kaidan finishing of the rest of the geth, Kaidan pulling them from cover with his biotics, and Nihlus reducing them to scrap with his weapons.

As the gunfire ceased Ashley spoke to the others. "That's all of them, I don't see Saren anywhere."

"He must have left already. The beacons still here though." Nihlus gestured to the beacon standing in the empty space, emitting a faint glow.

"I'll radio the Normandy." Shepard moved off, hand raised to his ear.

"That's weird, it wasn't doing that before when it was dug up." Ashley spoke puzzled, moving closer to the beacon to have a look at it.

"Wait!" Kaidan exclaimed.

But it was too late, the beacon seemed to grab a hold of Ashley and drag her closer into its grasp. She struggled but it seemed to be of no use, Shepard turned and saw what was happening. He pushed past Kaidan and ran at Ashley, grabbing a hold of her and throwing her to the side. The beacon then seemed to renew its efforts on Shepard pulling him up into the air, and then start transmitting some form of information into his mind. He wasn't sure how much he could take, his vision going dark as images appeared in his head and then the beacon exploded throwing Shepard back unconscious.

"Shepard!" Ashley shouted.

The others moved to his side checking him over to see if he was ok, before the Normandy arrived at their location and they took Shepard aboard. The remains of the beacon were also collected in case they could be of any use.

Shepard awoke to the sound of hushed voices a little way from him, Shepard shifted on what felt like a bed from a med bay. As he blinked rapidly a couple of times and his vision cleared he took in the medical equipment of his surroundings and saw that he was indeed in the med bay of the Normandy.

"Dr Chakwas, I think he's coming around." Ashley came into his sight as he moved to sit up. Dr Chakwas walked from her desk to stand beside her with a datapad in hand typing a few notes.

"You had us worried commander. You've been out for a while." Dr Chakwas looked up a thin relieved smile on her face.

"How long was I out?" Shepard asked.

"About fifteen hours. How are you feeling?"

"Some throbbing, nothing more than a headache." He raised a hand to his temple.

"Physically your fine, however I noticed some abnormal brain activity, and an increase in your rapid eye movement. The signs typically associated with intense dreaming." She added.

"I saw lots of death and destruction….. Slaughter, I …. Its not clear, just a blur." Shepard said uncertainly.

"Shepard I'm sorry, if I had been more careful this wouldn't have happened and you wouldn't have been grabbed by the beacon." Ashley cut in.

"It's fine, you had no way of knowing what would happen." Shepard replied.

Ashley concerned expression softened and a small smile appeared. Dr Chakwas added something to her datapad.

"Well I'll have to add this to my report, Shepard I… Oh Captain Anderson." Dr Chakwas looked to the open door as Anderson walked into the room.

"How's the commander?" He asked.

"There seems to be no damage done, I think he shall be fine."

"Good, Shepard I need to speak with you... in private." Anderson gave a glance to the two others in the room.

"Captain, I'll be in the mess hall if you need me." Ashley saluted and followed Dr Chakwas out the door.

"The beacon knocked you out for over ten hours Shepard. You sure you're ok? Anderson queried.

"I don't like people dying under my command." Shepard brain supplied the image of Jenkins being gunned down by the geth drones instantly, it was too soon.

"He was a good man Shepard and you did your best."

"I'll be fine Captain." Shepard added.

"Shepard with the beacon destroyed, geth attacking after not being seen since their rebellion and now with Saren involved the Council's going to want answers."

"We haven't done anything wrong, and Nihlus can back us up. How is he?" Shepard thought of the attempted shot to the back of the head.

"Dr Chakwas checked him over, just a nasty bruise is all, you saved his life Shepard."

Anderson began to pace the room before stopping and turning back to Shepard. "But that's not why I'm here its Saren. He's a Spectre, one of the best and if he's gone rouge and allied himself with the geth, we will be in big trouble. He hate humans and would gladly see us all wiped out, did you see anything there? Any clue as to what Saren might be after? Anderson questioned, looking at Shepard expectantly.

"I think it must have the something to do with the beacon. I saw images before I passed out, but they're too distorted to make anything out of it. The beacon was already damaged, whatever information it had is useless right now. Saren may have used it before and then damaged it to prevent anyone else from seeing whatever it contained?" Shepard said with a thoughtful expression.

"Nobody knows what was on that beacon, prothean technology, blueprints for devastating weapons? But Saren has it. He's a Spectre, can go anywhere and do anything. With a army of geth he won't stop till he's killed us all."

"We have to take what we know to the Council and prove his guilt. Then we can go after him." Shepard cut in.

"Nihlus has sent a report to the Council already and they want to see us as soon as we arrive. I'll stand by your own report Shepard when you send it. We should almost be at the Citadel, go up to the bridge and tell Joker to pull us in to dock. The ambassador will meet us there." Anderson nodded to Shepard before leaving the room his expression grim at the events which seemed to be unfolding.

Shepard followed Anderson out talking briefly to Ashley who still seemed to be worried about endangering Shepard being her fault and the fate of her squad. He was quick to reassure her that it wasn't her fault and that she did the best she good for her squad. He moved on past the elevator and up the stairs to the upper level, as he came through the doors he saw Nihlus up ahead making his way to the cockpit. Shepard followed him and when he stepped through Nihlus noticed his presence and turned to him.

"Shepard I'm glad to see your ok."

"You too Nihlus." He replied.

"I sent a report to the Council already, they're going to open an investigation into Saren." Nihlus mandibles remained tight and rigid against his face, his voice seemed slightly lower, frustrated.

"Why don't you sound pleased? Isn't that good news?" Shepard asked puzzled.

"It was the way it was phrased, an obligation to do something than wanting to. Saren is one of the best, he mentored me. The Council won't want to see him in this way, we're going to need hard evidence to convince them otherwise its just our word against his and I don't think it will go in our favour." Nihlus replied, frustration becoming clear.

Joker turned his head in his seat and spoke to Shepard. "We've reached the Citadel, you want me to bring her in?" He asked.

"Do it, we've got a meeting with the Council to get to." Shepard Nodded. He had a feeling this was going to be a long day.

**AN: ****So that is it the first chapter, yay. I hope you liked it. I know it was a bit linear but as I get more comfortable and into my own story it will get more personal. I've already started on Chapter 2 and I think that is much better already, lot less referring to the actual dialogue and more making it up so bear with me. I know I've kept Nihlus alive but I'm always disappointed that he's in it for such a small amount of time and I thought 'hey, this is my story, so lets keep Nihlus alive' and so there we go ^^. We get some of our favourite Turian next chapter so that will be great, I'll make sure to make it awesome ^^. Also I probably wouldn't of even thought about actually writing a full story of this if it hadn't been for one random person who messaged me asking about it. So if you like it go give your thanks to Buck50 as well, or if you didn't well forget about me and blame them lol :P. I think I've got about half of chapter two done so it shouldn't be too long before that's up. I'll try to keep to a weekly update at most but when I go back to University after the Christmas break it might be a bit longer as I will have to do actual work, so fingers crossed at that point it will be no longer than two weeks. Let me know what you think. :)**

**Next Chapter: The Citadel.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Citadel

Mass Effect 1: It Begins

Chapter 2: The Citadel

**AN: Here is the second chapter of Mass Effect 1: It begins, The Citadel. Something I forgot to mention in the last chapter, as much as it will surprise you I don't own the Mass Effect Series that honour belongs to Bioware. Otherwise Garrus/MShep would have been a reality :P. Darn, never mind on with the chapter. ^^**

* * *

The Normandy approached the colossal deep-space station known as the Citadel which houses the Citadel Council. Housing a population of over 13 million and simulating gravity by rotation, the Citadel is quite a sight and is quite obvious as to why it was chosen to be the centre of the galactic community and government. Joker contacted Alliance control requesting somewhere to dock and the Normandy was directed to a bay. Shepard and his team, Nihlus and Anderson grabbed their things and made their way off the ship towards the presidium.

* * *

Once setting foot on the presidium itself they made their way over to the Citadel tower to see the Council, once passing through the security they managed to get inside the building and to the main level where the Council convened. As the group exited the elevator they saw two turians that appeared to be arguing. The one that seemed to be doing most of the talking was dressed in the standard blue/black C-sec armour and the other was in a more formal but no less official state of dress with blue and reds. As they approached they began to make out their conversation.

"I know Saren is up to something. Just give me some more time, stall them." The first turian said. Know they were closer they could see that he had a dark grey plate colouring, dark blue face markings and blue eyes.

"Stall the Council? Don't be absurd, the investigation is over Garrus." The other turian who had a deep brown plate colour and green eyes raised an arm making a dismissing gesture and then turned to walk away.

The other Turian watched him walk away before turning to Shepard and the group. "Commander Shepard? I'm Garrus Vakarian I was in charge of the investigation into Saren."

"Who was that you were talking to just now?" Shepard asked him.

"That is Executor Pallin, head of Citadel Security. He'll be the one presenting my findings to the Council." Garrus explained.

"Sounds like you have something against Saren."

"There is something about him that's not right. He'll tell you one thing while his hand does another, I'm sure he has some hidden motive. But everything he touches is classified so I can't find a thing." There was anger in his voice as he said it.

"We need to go Shepard." Nihlus cut in.

"Good luck Shepard, maybe you'll have a better chance at this than I did."

Shepard nodded to Garrus and the group moved past up the stairs and along the few offices and garden feature in the middle. As they moved up the back staircase they could hear voices.

"Seems they started without us." Anderson noted.

Once they reached the top they saw the three Councillors across from them on the other side. The Asari Councillor Tevos had a purplish skin colour and wore a red and white garment. To her left stood the Salarian Councillor Valern wearing a robe that covered most of his dark coloured face, the only thing noticeable being the eyes. The robe also being a black colour with red and gold coloured edges. To the Asari Councillors other side stood the Turian Councillor Sparatus taller than the other two with a dark plate colour and cream coloured facial markings. His attire consisted of different blues with some slight red. On their side of the chamber stood Ambassador Udina, his face concentrated in an angry expression with grey hair and light brown eyes wearing a cream coloured suit. To the right of both parties stood a holographic projector which was showing an image of a very large Saren in a orange glow with what seemed to be a matching angry expression.

"We have heard no evidence to suggest that Saren is connected to the geth attack in any way. The asari councillor voice crossed the gap.

"The investigation conducted by Citadel Security showed us no evidence either." The Turian Councillor added.

"I saw Saren with my own two eyes, he was there and he tried to shoot me." Nihlus interjected.

"I'm sorry for what happened Nihlus but the blow to the head must have affected your memory. It must have been some other Turian." Saren responded, sympathy in his tone that didn't reach the eyes.

"How do you know he was shot in the head unless you were there? We also have an eyewitness who saw it all" Udina gestured angrily.

"Seeing as I've been accused of a heinous crime it's only fair that I know what I'm being accused of Ambassador." Saren replied condescendingly.

"We also find the eyewitness account of one traumatised dockworker hardly satisfactory evidence." The Salarian Councillor spoke to Udina.

"If you give us time we will find the evidence to prove it." Shepard tried.

"I'm sorry Shepard, Nihlus but we've already given more than enough to this accusation as it is, at the end of the day its just one beings word against another's."

"What about the Commander's vision?" Anderson interrupted.

"Captain there is nothing that can tell us, it may not have anything to do with the beacon and even if it did it hardly proves anyone's guilt now." Shepard tried to keep the role out of his eyes but the Captain was pulling at straws now. They needed something solid, that was clear if they wanted the Councils help.

"The commander is right Captain Anderson, unless you have anything substantial to add I think we can reach a conclusion." The Turian Ambassador spoke to Anderson.

"No we don't Councillor." Shepard cut in before Anderson could make things worse. The Turian Councillor turned to the other two, it seemed they had a silent conversation before they nodded to each other and the Asari Councillor spoke again.

"The Council has found no evidence to support the charges against Spectre Saren Arterius. The motion made to have him stripped of his Spectre status is denied Ambassador."

"I'm glad to see common sense has prevailed and justice has been served." Saren gave the group a glare before giving the Councillors a respectful nod of the head and the hologram faded.

"The meeting is now adjourned." The Asari Councillor finished.

The group walked back down the steps to the lower level where Udina and Anderson began arguing, Udina blaming Andersons presence due to his past history and Anderson just kept going on about how Saren would kill us all. When it got to the point where they just sounded like children, Shepard felt abit like having to be a parent breaking them up.

"Why don't we try talking to the C-Sec investigator, Garrus Vakarian wasn't it?" Shepard broke in.

"It sounded like he may know something but he didn't have time to put it in the report. It could be a lead." Ashley added. Anderson and Udina turned to look at the group, Udina seemed to collect himself before answering.

"We need anything we can get right now to expose Saren. I have a contact in C-Sec his names Harkin, you should talk to him and he should be able to tell you where to find this Garrus Vakarian. You'll find him in Chora's Den."

Anderson snorted. "That fool, I wouldn't trust him he just got suspended for being drunk on the job."

"Well you don't need to. As it has little to do with you now Anderson." Udina snapped back.

Shepard held back a sigh before replying. "I'll go to see Harkin then first. Kaidan, Ashley head back to the ship we're going to need to be ready for when everything goes up in the air if we can find what we need." They nodded in the affirmative before heading for the exit.

"Good luck Shepard." Anderson and Udina said in almost perfect unison before giving each other an annoyed glare.

"Lets get moving Shepard, we don't need to give Saren anymore of a headstart than he already has." Nihlus spoke to Shepard in an urgent tone.

* * *

Shepard and Nihlus got in a Citadel transport vehicle and went to the wards, taking an elevator down to Chora's Den. When they arrived and stepped through the door that lead to the entrance to Chora's Den there was a shout from the other side of the walkway and two figures clad in black jumped up. Anticipating what would happen Shepard and Nihlus rushed forward into cover as gunshots sailed overhead. Shepard pulled out a pistol and Nihlus a sniper rifle. When there was a lull in fire Shepard raised himself from cover and focusing his biotics held his hand out in front of him, biotic energy encompassed one of the two black clad figures. Shepard raised his hand in one quick motion the figure being raised to mimic it, then he closed his fist and brought it back down just as quickly and the figure was brought crashing back down with a shuddering force not likely to walk again. Shepard took a couple of shots at the other figure before ducking back behind cover. After another couple of shots Nihlus jumped from his cover sniper raised and looking down the scope. When the other figure tried to lean out from their cover to take a shot, Nihlus managed to take the figure out before they could even raise they're weapon with a well placed bullet in the head. Shepard and Nihlus cautiously made there way over to the two downed figures, close up revealing them both to be Turians.

"I don't think Saren wants to risk us getting in his way." Shepard muttered.

"Agreed." Nihlus said darkly.

They both holstered they're weapons and made there way into the entrance of Chora's Den. Once inside they looked around at the dark lights, the dancers which were mostly Asari and the many drunk patrons and probably thought the same thing. They didn't want to be here longer than they had to be. Nihlus noticed a man nearer the back of the establishment that seemed to be in a rather dirty, but still noticeable C-Sec uniform.

"Over there." Nihlus spoke to Shepard over the loud noise and gestured to who was most likely Harkin. As they made there way over they caught sight of an argument between two Krogan in the doorway which must lead to some sort of private area of the club. As they approached Harkin's table they heard the first Krogan who was wearing heavy red armour and had a big scar down one side of his face that went over his red eye speak to the other one who appeared to be a bouncer.

"If Fist new what's good for him, he'd see me …. now." The Krogan growled out.

"I've already told you Wrex, he's not going to see you. Get lost its over." The other Krogan threatened.

"Its not even started." The now named Wrex threatened right back. He turned away and walked past Shepard and Nihlus.

"Out of my way I have no business with you." He shot out at the pair.

"Well he was pleasant." Shepard smirked at Nihlus.

"Lets just stay out of the way of whatever that is. We have bigger problems right now than a enraged Krogan." Nihlus replied with a shake of the head. The two of them turned to Harkins table and walked the few steps.

"Are you Harkin?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah who wants to know?" Harkin snapped back.

"We were told you could help us find a co-worker of yours, Garrus Vakarian?"

"Ahhh you must be one of Captain Andersons crew. Did you know about his secret?" He grinned at the duo.

"I don't care just tell us what we need to know." Nihlus snapped at the man.

"Yesh, buzz kill. He went to see a Dr Chloe Michel, she works in the Medical centre in the upper words. Apparently she had some information for him on his big case. Now leave me alone." Harkin went back to his drink, ignoring the two of them.

"Gladly." Shepard turned away from the infuriating man and Nihlus followed him as they walked out the seedy bar.

"If we take transport we should be there in a matter of minutes. We don't want to miss him" Nihlus spoke to Shepard.

"Agreed, hopefully this Dr Michel will be able to help us out." Shepard replied. They walked along the walkway and back through the archway to the transport terminal and made a request for transport to the Medical centre.

* * *

After getting off the transport on the wards Shepard and Nihlus made there way over to the Medical centre. Once they reached the doors they heard raised voices and a more hysterical shout from within, Shepard looked to Nihlus and he nodded. The duo reached for their weapons and opened the door, as they made there way in to the room a human thug spun road holding a human female close and a pistol pointed at her head.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The thug said shortly to Shepard. Shepard saw movement out of the corner of his eye, it was Garrus Vakarian crouched low beneath the counter and making his way round the side. If Shepard could buy some time, Garrus would be able to get a clear shot at the thug holding the woman hostage.

"Easy, we just want to make sure nobody gets hurt." Shepard tried calmly.

"Well too bad, we've been paid to make sure this lady gets it." The thug grunted out.

"Is it really worth risking your life over some credits?"

"It's a lot of credits." He snorted.

"Doesn't mean much if you never have a chance to use them, I'm not going to let you hurt her." Shepard raised his pistol slightly higher trying to aim a shot as he spoke.

"Well I'll guess I just have to take you and your friend down as well."

"Do you really think that's it? There is security all over the place, you wouldn't get away." Shepard tried to reason with him, though he had a feeling he was the greedy type that was too stupid to think 5 minutes ahead. Shepard couldn't see Garrus anymore, he'd disappeared around the other side.

"Please C-Sec is a joke we can wa…" The thug never got a chance to finish his sentence as Garrus came into view coming out of his hiding spot and taking the thug out with a clean shot to the head with a pistol. The woman took a sharp gasp of air and dived in the direction of Garrus to get out of the line of fire of the other thugs. Shepard and Nihlus both ducked into cover by the counter as the rest of the thugs opened fire on the pair. Shepard allowed his biotics to flare creating a biotic barrier around him and Nihlus, and then raised himself from cover, taking fire at a thug who was out of position by a crate. As Shepard finished off the first thug with his pistol, Nihlus came up with his assault rifle and threw a grenade in the direction of the two other thugs. The grenade exploded forcing the two thugs from behind their pillars wounded, Nihlus opened fire on the first thug taking him down and as Shepard's barrier came down he extended his arm outwards throwing an over charged throw at the other thug. It slammed into him sending him flying through the air into the wall with a crash. Nihlus took a couple of shots at the downed thug to be sure he was dead, before he and Shepard holstered their weapons and made there way over to Garrus who was consoling the woman who seemed shaken by the events.

"Perfect timing Shepard, you gave me a clear shot at the leader." Garrus looked up as Shepard and Nihlus approached pleased tone evident.

"Glad I could help, it seemed to escalate quickly. Are you ok, miss?" Shepard addressed the last part to the woman.

"Dr. Chloe Michel. I'm fine Commander, thanks to you two and Garrus intervention." She smiled briefly.

"Dr Michel, why were those men here to kill you?" Nihlus asked her.

"They work for Fist, they were here to shut me up about the Quarian I treated a couple of days ago."

"What does the Quarian have to do with it?" Garrus said gently.

"She came in with a gunshot wound, refused to tell me where it came from. Apparently she has information on the geth and wanted to trade it for her safety. I put her in contact with one of the Shadow Brokers agents, Fist. I can only guess whatever information it is was important enough that I was too much of a risk to even know what little about it I do." She said quietly.

"From what I was able to find out Fist isn't working for the Shadow Broker anymore. He crossed the Broker and is working for Saren now, whatever that information the Quarian has must implicate him somehow and he's worried it will get out." Garrus added after Dr Michel.

"Crossing the Shadow Broker? That's suicidal, even I know that if you cross the Shadow Broker you won't be around much longer afterwards." Dr Michel looked surprised.

"Saren must have offered quite an incentive, or a bigger threat." Shepard inputted.

"Shepard we need to get to Fist before he does anything to her." Nihlus interjected.

"That Wrex was after Fist wasn't he? Maybe he would help us out?" Shepard's mouth quirked upwards in the corners fighting back a smirk.

"Shepard he seemed dangerous."

"But on our side a Krogan wrecking ball would be quite the advantage over whatever Fist tries to put in our way." Shepard sent right back.

"Can't argue with that, if you can convince him go ahead." Nihlus answered. Garrus had activated his Omni-tool while they were speaking and was typing something on it, after he finished whatever he was doing the glow faded and he lowered his arm.

"Dr Michel C-Sec officers are on they're way and will be here in a few minutes. You'll be safe from now on."

"Thank you Garrus." Dr Michel gave another smile to Garrus. Garrus smiled at the Dr mandibles opened before turning to Shepard and Nihlus.

"I know this is your show, but I want to help you to take Saren down. I can't do much here in C-Sec while Saren is out there doing whatever he wants." Garrus spoke slight anger in his voice.

"Why do you want to take him down so bad?" Shepard asked.

"Because he's a disgrace to my people and I won't just let him get away with this. There has always been something not right about him." Garrus replied, anger going up a level. Shepard took a moment to look at Garrus and think it over. He couldn't think of a reason to say no, he already new that Saren was going to be a slippery guy and they could definitely use Garrus's skills to help pin him down.

"Well then welcome aboard Garrus." Shepard held out his hand and Garrus took it giving a quick firm shake.

"Thank you Commander."

"Where are we going to find this Wrex, Shepard?" Nihlus asked, however Garrus answered him.

"They brought in a Krogan that had reportedly been making threats to Fist just before I left the C-Sec Academy that was probably him. We could catch him before he left."

"Sounds like a plan." Shepard spoke.

* * *

The group left Dr Michel in the C-Sec officers hands and left the wards to reach the C-Sec Academy. As they exited the elevator into the C-Sec Academy lobby they saw a crowded group to the left surrounding a familiar Krogan. They seemed, to no big surprise to be in an argument. A Human C-Sec officer seemed to be trying to threaten Wrex with little effect, Wrex just seemed to laugh before leaning over the C-Sec officer and growled something out at him. Then Wrex noticed the Shepard group, pushing past the C-Sec officer and making his way over to them.

"Do I know you human?" Wrex came to a stop in front of them.

"I'm Commander Shepard and we're going after Fist, thought you might want to join?" Shepard though that straight to the point was probably the best way to go about it.

"I was hired by the Shadow Broker to kill him, that's going to happen." Wrex got in Shepard's face, for along moment nobody spoke as Shepard and Wrex stared each other down. Wrex apparently found something he liked however before he lent back with a deep chuckle and said.

"Someone told me that if you seek the enemy of an enemy you will find a friend."

"Welcome aboard Wrex." Shepard grinned, Wrex extended a hand and Shepard shook it, experiencing a bone crushing grip from Wrex. Definitely not someone to get on the wrong side of Shepard thought to himself.

"Lets get after Fist before he knows where coming." Nihlus added. The group agreed and left the way they came, Fist wouldn't know what hit him when they arrive at his door.

* * *

When they approached Chora's Den they noticed it had been shut down, the lights all off and the door locked.

"Well it seems like he new we were coming." Garrus spoke.

"Good, that makes it more entertaining." Wrex grinned.

Garrus made short work of the lock and the door opened into a dark empty space. The group drew their various weapons at the ready and entered, the lights blazing into existence. Fist's men appeared from varying positions and the Squad crouched down into cover before the first shots fired, but it wasn't doing much good as bullets got way to close for comfort.

"This isn't going to get us anywhere. Shepard?" Nihlus questioned. Shepard nodded and closed his eyes, his biotics coming to life in a burningly bright glow, he raised both of his arms in a circular motion and a biotic sphere of energy came into existence shielding them from the gunfire. Shepard stood and moved his arms outwards, the sphere of energy expanding considerably to allow the group plenty of space to manoeuvre within it covering now a good 6 meters point to point. Nihlus started to take shots at Fist's men, while Garrus gaped for a second and Wrex gave him an appraising look before they both turned back to the problem at hand. Garrus using his sniper rifle took out the long range shooters while Nihlus focused on the rest and Wrex set about taking people out with his shotgun and a few warps of biotic energy. When it seemed that most the enemies had been taken care of the Krogan bouncer in a rage charged at the group, two other men wielding rifles behind him continuing to fire.

"The barrier's coming down now." Shepard warned to the squad. He pulled his hands back and pointed them both in the direction of the incoming Krogan, his biotics flared outwards briefly as he focused. Then with a push outwards the shield of biotic energy was sent flying at the Krogan, slamming into him with an unstoppable force as it continued on its path taking the Krogan with it and shredding furniture as they were torn from the fixings. All this slammed into the two poor thugs and they were thrown into the wall with it, the biotic field dissipating and everything crashed into the floor. Shepard took a deep breath to cool off and looked to the door near the back.

"I'm guessing Fist is through there?" Shepard asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah his office is through there." Wrex answered.

"Ah Shepard, I was just, wondering. I heard you were a biotic, but that?" Garrus spoke to Shepard, seemingly struggling to get the words out.

"Well there is a reason I'm classed as the Alliance's top biotic." Shepard grinned at Garrus.

"Yeah no kidding."

"Lets not sit around here all day, lets get after Fist." Nihlus spoke to the two. Shepard nodded, following Nihlus around the bar to the back offices, Wrex and Garrus bringing up the rear. They passed through a couple of doorways into a much more stylish space and the sound of a couple of turrets coming to life prompted the squad to take cover.

"Do I have to take care of everything myself?" A Human male shouted from behind a desk, obviously Fist in the way of his expensive clothes and arrogant expression. The turrets began to fire as Fist ducked down for cover, while the turrets focused on Wrex and Nihlus. Shepard lent from behind the pillar he was hiding by and sent a warp at the turret to take out the shields which then allowed Garrus to destroy it with his rifle. The other turret then began focusing on Shepard and Garrus, allowing Wrex and Nihlus to do a similar thing to what the other two had done and destroy the turret. Fist then swore and began to take shots at the group wildly. Though it wasn't enough to stop Wrex, who after Garrus had taken out Fist's shielding with well placed shots had charged at Fist and rammed him into the wall. Fist slumped to the floor looking a mess, though he still managed to look at the group defiantly as they approached.

"I'm not going to tell you anything!" He spat out.

"Tell us what we want to know and you can walk out of here. Where is the Quarian?" Shepard said as he came to stand before Fist.

"It's not going to work, I tell you anything Saren will kill me, so what!"

"As opposed to Wrex killing you now which will certainly happen if you don't tell us what we want to know? At least you'll have a chance to run and get away from Saren then if you tell us." Shepard hoped he had enough self preservation to see sense. Fist seemed to go quietly for a few seconds before he looked back.

"Fine, but I can't stop it now. I sent the Quarian into a trap, she's going to be meeting Saren's men and once they get the information from her they'll kill her. I told her to give it to me and then I could be done with it but no no, she wanted to meet with the Shadow Broker in person, hah. I told her I'd set it up, and sent her on her way." He muttered, Shepard sent a questioning look to Wrex.

"Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Ever." Wrex replied, stressing the last bit.

"Right, well where did you send her?"

"In the maintenance section behind the lower wards. Better hurry." Fist Spat blood onto the floor. As the rest of the squad turned to leave, Wrex pulled out his shotgun in one quick, smooth motion and gave Fist a gaping hole in the chest. Shepard turned to stare at Wrex.

"What?" He grunted. Shepard decided now wasn't the time as they needed to get to this Quarian before it was too late. Besides he was kind of glad Wrex still did it, Fist deserved it really and he would only go on to cause more trouble anyway.

* * *

As they entered the hustle and bustle of the wards the squad made there way around the side to the back wall which most of the shops and kiosks were against. They slipped through into maintenance, went down some steps and weaved passed some pieces of random machinery to reach the meeting point. They rounded a corner and came to a stop, up ahead were a group of people each in full body armour and tinted visors. Standing in front of them was a small Quarian in a deep green enviro-suit that all members of the Quarian race wore to protect themselves from getting sick, due to their weaker immune systems. This being brought on from living in sterile environments for so long in space on their Flotilla. The apparent leader stepped forward to the Quarian.

"Do you have the information?" He questioned.

"Where is the Shadow Broker?" The Quarian replied, sounding nervous.

"I'm here in his stead, you can trust me." Though his voice sounded anything but.

"I was told they'd be coming to meet me. Why should I trust you?" She accused.

"Just give me the information!" The leader said, losing his patience with the Quarian.

"No!" She shouted.

"Grab her and let's go." The leader ordered to the people standing behind him, gesturing to the Quarian. Before anyone could move the Quarian's Omni-tool lit up and she pressed something on the display. There was an explosion and the area was littered with debris and smoke, in the confusion the Quarian ran for cover putting distance between her and Saren's people. The confusion was all Shepard needed and the leader closest to the Quarian was thrown of their feet and into two people behind them, knocking them all to the ground with his biotics. Garrus and Nihlus moved forward, taking up positions and sniping the still confused group as they collected themselves. Wrex with a biotic barrier in place got up close and with his shotgun began blasting people off their feet and Shepard with his pistol and a heavy shockwave tearing through the middle of the group kept them from getting organised. It was quite simple and well executed, Saren's people obviously hadn't been expecting them to show up and it cost them dearly. Shepard approached the Quarian after holstering his weapon and she moved from cover back into the open.

"You don't need to worry, I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance military. Were you hurt? Shepard asked concerned.

"N no I'm fine thank you. My name is Tail'Zorah nar Rayya. You saved me back there." Tail replied thankfully.

"After finding out you were getting set up we got here as fast as we could. We want to help you get your information to the Council, they need to see it."

"Really, oh thank you, I've been running for so long, Keelah." She exclaimed.

"What does this information have that makes it so valuable?

"There is a man, Turian I think. He's talking about the attack on Eden Prime and the geth, the return of something called the Reapers is mentioned as well. There's a woman talking to him, but it's the man that does most of it." She fidgets with her hands as she talks to them.

"If this is Saren then we've caught him out, how did you come across that information?" Garrus asked her.

"I was travelling to Illium when we came across a geth signal on a frozen planet. We landed and I managed to extract the memory core from one of the geth units before they could fry it. It was still pretty far gone but we managed to catch some of an audio log and when we saw what was on it we new that we had to get it to the Council." She finished.

"You said we?" Shepard picked up on.

"They didn't make it." Tali spoke softly. Shepard internally winced, real smooth he thought.

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks, but I'm ok I just don't won't to dwell on it right now." Shepard nodded to her. Nihlus brought his Omni-tool up and began typing.

"I'm going to contact the Council and I should be able to get us in if I can stress the situation to them." Nihlus moved off so he could speak, other hand raised to his ear.

"I'd best contact Captain Anderson and the Ambassador, they'll want to be there." Shepard raised his own Omni-tool and contacted the ambassador's office. He didn't think that there was much point, the two would probably just end up at each others throats again or insult someone. Nobody answered so he left a message for Udina that they had found solid evidence against Saren and were going to take it to the Council. As he turned back around he saw Garrus standing by the Quarian, checking her over much to her own displeasure and Wrex was leaning against some stacked crates away from them.

"They agreed to see us, but we need to go now. The Councillors don't like us coming back trying to expose Saren again after they've already denied us once." Nihlus had turned back to the group and strode forwards.

"We need to make this count as I doubt the Council will listen to us a third time. We can take transport straight to the tower from the wards." Shepard spoke to the assembled group. The Squad made their way back over to the public part of the wards and to a transport terminal that could take them to the Citadel Tower.

* * *

As the group arrived at the Citadel Tower they hurried through up to the main level and ignored the stares they were given as the unusual group combination passed by. Reaching the steps that took them up to the Council, Shepard and Nihlus went first as the others followed behind. Councillor Sparatus looked up as they approached and glared at Shepard.

"So you've back again. I wouldn't have bothered to show myself after your embarrassing actions earlier."

"We have the solid proof you wanted, we wouldn't have come back otherwise." Shepard replied keeping his voice level.

"Councillors following a trail we were lead to Tali'Zorah nar Rayya who has an audio file implicating Saren in the attack on Eden Prime. May we play the log?" Nihlus stepped up.

"You may Nihlus." Councillor Tevos replied.

"Thank you Councillor." Nihlus gestured for Tali to step forward, she came to stand beside Nihlus and raised her arm. Omni-tool coming to life she pressed a few buttons and the audio log started to play.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduct." Saren's voice sounded from the recording.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." A female voice replied. The recording finished and Tali stepped back to stand beside Garrus.

"I don't think we could get anything more solid than that." Nihlus addressed the Council.

"This evidence cannot be denied. Saren's Spectre status will be revoked immediately and we will begin our efforts to have him brought in for his crimes." Councillor Valern spoke.

"It seems I was mistaken Commander. I'm sorry to have doubted you." Councillor Sparatus said clearly uncomfortable admitting it.

"I know the other voice on that recording, it is Matriarch Benezia." Councillor Tevos added troubled.

"Who's Matriarch Benezia?" Shepard asked.

"Matriarch Benezia is a well respected Asari for my people, she has many supporters and would make a formidable ally for Saren. Matriarchs are Asari who have entered the later stage of life and they are held in high regard in our culture. They're wisdom and experience is well respected."

"What about these Reapers?" Councillor Sparatus questioned.

"As far as I know they are myths that are supposed to be a race of synthetic sentient machines that exterminated the Protheans and all organic life 50,000 years ago. Then they disappeared for no apparent reason. Do you think Saren believes this? That this conduit will somehow bring them back?" Shepard asked.

"To the geth a race of machines that wiped out all organic life would sound appealing and something to even worship possibly." Councillor Valern pondered.

"Saren is a very charismatic individual. I think that Saren is using this myth to convince the geth to follow him to go after what he really wants." Councillor Sparatus replied to Shepard's question.

"We know what Saren told the geth about the conduit, but what does it really do?" Councillor Tevos asked to Councillor Sparatus.

"At the moment we are going to need to bring him in to find that out. But if he's hiding in the Traverse systems we can't send in a fleet or we will be risking a war with the Terminus system." He replied.

"Lets us go after him. We can move faster than a whole fleet can." Shepard interrupted.

"The Commander makes a good point. We can send them in after Saren without risking the fallout a whole fleet would cause." Councillor Tevos remarked.

"Humanity isn't ready for this, it is too soon to admit them into the Spectres." Councillor Sparatus gestured widely.

"Nihlus you've been observing the Commander, what is your opinion?" Councillor Valern asked.

"Commander Shepard shows great promise, his fighting skills are strong especially biotics. Though his diplomatic skills stand out the most, being able to find compromises and defuse a situation without resorting to violence if he can." Nihlus stated.

"Sparatus if you took out the human element and based your judgement purely on his capabilities would you give the Commander a position in the Spectres?" Councillor Tevos turned to Sparatus questioningly. The Turian Councillor looked uncomfortable for a moment before he gave a sigh.

"I think the Commander would make a worthy Spectre and would be a great asset."

"Then I think we have made a decision." Councillor Tevos looked to Councillor Valern who gave her a nod. The three of them looked down to the consoles in front of them and pressed a few buttons.

"Commander Shepard step forward." Councillor Tevos spoke in authoritative tone and Shepard walked to stand before the three Councillors.

"It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." Councillor Valern spoke next, crossing his arms.

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will." Councillor Tevos continued.

"Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defence. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold." Councillor Sparatus took over.

"You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species. Nihlus will continue to monitor your progress Shepard and If we feel that our judgement was premature we shall revoke your Spectre status as we have done with Saren." Councillor Tevos finished.

"It's an honour Councillor. I will prove that it was the right decision." Shepard bowed his head.

"We're sending you into the Traverse system after Saren, you can use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him." Councillor Valern addressed Shepard.

"Do you have any leads?"

"There have been reports of geth on one of your Human colonies, Feros and they have also been sightings around Noveria." Councillor Sparatus replied.

"Matriarch Benezia has a daughter, Dr. Liara T'Soni. She specialises in Protheans, it might be a good idea to speak to her and see what see knows. Our reports tell us she was exploring an archaeological dig site on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau Cluster. Shepard we can't confirm if she is working for her mother or not so be on your guard when you find her." Councillor Tevos added with a warning.

"I'll start with Matriarch Benezia's daughter." Shepard concluded.

"Very well Commander. This meeting is adjourned." The Councillors left their terminals as the squad proceeded back down the steps. Shepard noticed that a crowd had gathered on the balconies as the Council had appointed him the Spectre position, it clearly wouldn't be something to just blow over in a night. As they reached the open garden area they saw Anderson and Udina hurrying towards them.

"Shepard what is going on? You should have waited for us!" Udina spoke angrily.

"If we had waited for you to arrive the Council would have moved on and we would of lost our chance to see them. The Council has appointed me as a Spectre and are sending me into the Traverse after Saren. Nihlus will be continuing to evaluate me so that the Council can be certain of their judgement." Shepard held back the fact that Udina's aggressive pushiness wouldn't have helped.

"Well congratulations are in order Shepard." Anderson reached forward and the two shock hands.

"Thank you Captain."

"Humm. Be that as it may you're going to need a ship, supplies and a crew among other things if you're going after Saren. Come with me Anderson we need to talk." Udina appeared thoughtful.

"Shepard you should go down to the C-Sec academy and talk to the requisitions officer. Now that you're a Spectre you should have access to their equipment, then you can meet us at the Normandy when me and Udina are finished." Shepard nodded to Anderson and the two made there way to the Ambassadors office. Shepard led the way to the C-Sec academy and after they were finished there back to the docks. After Shepard got over the surprise at being given the command of the Normandy he questioned Anderson and Udina for last minute facts before walking aboard the ship with the new crew.

* * *

**AN: Wow that went on much longer than I thought it would. I hoped that it wouldn't be too short and I guess I got what I wanted ^^. This took much longer to write than I thought it would, was hoping to have it done two days ago. I just got to one point in the chapter and then it became such an effort to get even a paragraph out. Then I've had problems with the internet, thank god I sorted it before I'd actually finished and wanted to upload the chapter. Anyway I know there wasn't much Garrus/Shepard interaction in this chapter but now that we're got passed the story foundation we can get into that more. So next chapter we get some Shepard background/history and much waited for on my part some true Garrus/Shepard interaction woop. ^^**

**Also a big thank you to the reviews from a guest and Ireadsgood. **

**Next Chapter: Searching For The Doctor. **


	3. Chapter 3: Searching For The Doctor

Mass Effect 1: It Begins

Chapter 3: Searching For The Doctor

**AN:**** Chapter 3 Searching For The Doctor is up. As usual I don't own Mass Effect or any of the characters they all belong to Bioware. Enjoy.**

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Screaming could be heard all around, the fields alight with angry licking flames as he ran through them. His legs burned as he ran but he couldn't stop and the smoke hung thick in the air making it hard to breath. Gunfire could be heard in the distance and explosions rocked the main body of the colony like fireworks. Tears would have been falling down the teenagers face if not from the intense heat, his head filled with images of those he knew lying dead in pools of their own blood. He stumbled on a rock jutting out from the earth and fell forward into the earth with a crash, mustering his strength he picked himself back up to continue on. Not pausing for breath he continued on up the hill to try and escape the madness from below. When he reached the top he stopped next to the line of aged trees and leaned against one for support as he struggled to get his breath back. Then he made the mistake of turning around, the peaceful image of the valley from this morning looked nothing like what lay before him now, a hellish imitation mutated and twisted. The fields were burning fully now and the orchards that were once filled with ripe fruits now lay a graveyard of trees. The stream that ran through the valley was tainted with ash, blood and what looked like a body was being carried down stream. If it wasn't for all the chaos you wouldn't realise the colony was inhabited, the rubble it was becoming would seem to of be devoid of life for years, not minutes. The teenager standing on top of the hill was rooted to the spot as he watched the image before him. The screams rising in volume as they reached his ears to an almost unbearable volume, before the sight was ripped away in a rush of fire.

* * *

Shepard woke with a start, sweat making his clothing stick to his body and the sheets were sprayed haphazardly on the bed. He sat up bringing a hand to his head as he came out of the dream and sighed. He shook his head to try and dislodge the images that began playing through his again and he grimaced. He pushed the images down into the recess of his mind, determined not to think about it and glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table next to him which read 2:58am Galactic Standard Time. He usually had that dream every couple of weeks or so and past experience had taught him that it was pointless trying to get any more sleep. Shepard shoved the mess of sheets off him and stood, moving over to the shower he began stripping off his nightwear which consisted of a t-shirt and shorts. He turned the shower on and activated his Omni-tool as he waited for the temperature to settle. Shepard flicked through a couple of displays till he reached his music and selecting one of his favourites to play on the speakers, dismissed his Omni-tool and stepped into the shower. The piano began to play softly as the song began and the lyrics coming in shortly after, the music building upon itself to reach a great finish. It was a song of one his favourite artists, a Japanese singer from the 21st century. He liked to just forget about himself for a few minutes and just listen to the sounds of music.

After he finished in the shower and had gotten dressed in a comfortable pair of sweats and a nicer t-shirt he looked to sorting out his quarters before sitting at the desk. He had plenty of time to kill before he had to go on duty, they were on course for the Artemis Tau Cluster and then Shepard would need to help locate the Prothean ruins where Liara T'Soni was located. If it went well they might be welcoming a new crew member aboard, to the displeasure of some people. He got some surprised looks when he walked on board with a Quarian, Krogan and a Turian in toe and had announced that they were joining them. Shepard had hoped he'd made it perfectly clear that they were to be treated civilly at least or they'd be repercussions, without actually having to say the words and beat it into anyone's skulls. Though he would want to watch if anyone actually tried to be anything but with Wrex, or Garrus for that matter, it was mostly for Tali's s sake considering how nervous she seemed. After getting the additions on board Tali had settled down in the engine room giving a surprised gasp at the drive core when she saw it and marvelling how it was so different from the migrant fleet. Wrex had taken to leaning next to a pile of crates in the cargo bay and glaring at people that walked too close, though Shepard had feeling it was more for just the fun of scaring people. Garrus had decided to work on the Mako and make sure it was up for the job, not realising what he'd let himself in for with Shepard's terrible driving record.

Continuing on the topic of Garrus he wondered what constituted a good looking Turian, because if he was one he'd definitely find him attractive. Shepard snorted at his own thoughts, hell he found him attractive anyway and had long ago accepting that he had a thing for Turians. He though that Garrus looked very striking in his armour and he probably had lots of admirers. Shepard hadn't any experience with a Turian, he was terrible at flirting with other Humans and he couldn't imagine it would go any better with a Turian. Shepard imagined that he would probably end up with a concussion first if he tried to flirt with a male Turian, or worse. It was after an utterly embarrassing night with a girl on one of his first shore leaves that he'd finally figured he couldn't deny that he liked other guys more. Though other than a couple of one night stands when Shepard had way too much to drink, he'd not really had any relationships with guys either. Being in the Alliance didn't leave much free time for that and Shepard figured he just didn't have it in him. He sighed thinking of the time that he had to kill before the day shift started and he could get ready. Looking over to his bed he might as well be comfortable even if he couldn't sleep. Relaxing on the bed he reached for the nearby datapad and started reading an old favourite of his, preferring to lose himself in the fantasy of the text than think about his recent dream.

* * *

After grabbing his much needed coffee Shepard went around the ship making sure there were no problems and making sure everyone had what they needed. Shepard talked to Kaidan about his time in BAaT, though Kaidan was just glad it had been shut down. In his words 'You either came out Superman or a wreck. A lot didn't, some died.' Kaidan had commented that Shepard had been lucky to not of been 'encouraged' to join BAaT when he was younger. He'd seen Nihlus as well who he talked to about what should have been a simple pick up, had turned into a chase across the galaxy. Nihlus had jokingly agreed that Shepard seemed to have the talent of making a simple situation complicated before he went on his way. Dr Chakwas managed to corner him before he could get out of the crew deck, as she wanted to check up on him to make sure that there were no lingering problems from his contact with the beacon. After Shepard escaped he went down to the Cargo bay to see how the new additions had settled in. Wrex commented that Shepard had a nice ship, but otherwise he got the feeling Wrex didn't really feel like talking and Shepard was not going to push a Krogan mercenary. Ashley was disgruntled with all the aliens on board and Shepard convinced her to trust them, that everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves. Though he didn't mention the part where he thought she was being immature over her distrust simply for being a different species. In engineering Tali gushed over the tech that they had, the techno babble going over Shepard's head as he nodded in the right places. She said it was strange sleeping on a ship so quiet, that in the Migrant Fleet it was much noisier and the quiet usually meant something was wrong. She explained about her pilgrimage and how she hoped to bring something of real worth back to the Fleet, considering her family name she didn't want to let her father down. Tali thanked Shepard again before he left engineering for bringing her along and that it was much better than the alternative if he hadn't found her. When Shepard came back through the door into the Cargo bay Garrus had appeared next to the Mako, bent over the console typing away at some code. After Shepard talked with the Alliance Requisitions officer about getting some supplies he made his way over to Garrus.

"Garrus do you have time to talk?"

"Of course Commander. I just wanted to say that I'm glad that you brought me on board." Garrus turned to face Shepard.

"That's good, we're going to need it if Eden Prime was any indication. How have you settled in?"

"Fine Commander, the crew's been polite and I've been making myself busy working on improving the Mako. It's a relief to be away from C-Sec all the rules and regulations just stop you doing the job. Being able to work with you, a Spectre, going off into the galaxy to hunt down Saren without miles of red tape stopping us from even leaving the Citadel is satisfying." Garrus smiled at Shepard.

"You know that the rules are generally there for a reason." Shepard frowned.

"But when they get in the way of helping innocent people, that's when it becomes a problem."

"That I can understand, they don't always help in the end." Shepard sighed. "So is that why you left C-Sec?" He asked.

"By the end it was, when you first start isn't so bad but as you climb the ranks it gets worse."

"It's so much simpler when you're just told where to point and shoot, but then when your in charge its all different."

"Yeah it's a party." Garrus smirked. "So I was just wondering, how did you get to be such a strong biotic? I've seen strong before, but that was impressive back there on the citadel."

"Thanks, no idea really, there isn't a reason for it as far as I know. I could use biotics from a young age, nothing effective but they were there and I just assumed it was normal. When I joined the alliance they were surprised that I didn't actually have an implant, they assumed that I just had an old L1-amp or something." Shepard smiled.

"Well I can see why you're one of the Alliances top biotics, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that." He grinned.

Shepard raised a hand to the back of his head sheepishly. "Well that's refreshing, must Human's assume that I can read their minds."

"Turians aren't much better they're less suppositious and more mental breakdowns."

Shepard rolled his eyes. "For how advanced galactic civilization is it can be backward at times."

"It wouldn't be nearly as fun if we all got along. Too boring." Garrus mock serious in his voice.

"I have the strangest feeling that's not going to happen somehow. We're not going to be retiring anytime soon." Shepard shook his head amused.

"Just give me a couple of hours with my trusty sniper and we can have everyone quaking in their boots." He puffed his chest out.

"I think you've got a tiny bit of a big head there Garrus." Shepard teased.

"My head is perfectly proportional to the rest of me thank you very much Shepard." Garrus spoke with a hurt tone. Taloned hand coming up to his head.

"That's not what I meant, it's a human term we use when we're.." Garrus grin grew wider as Shepard spoke. "You know what I meant do you?" He accused.

"Of course, I've been around a lot of Humans working for C-Sec and all. It's amusing to watch." Garrus chuckled.

"I am your Commanding Officer remember Garrus." Though there was no seriousness in his tone as he spoke with a grin on his face.

"It won't happen again sir." Though the voice suggested otherwise.

"I'll let you get back to work Garrus." Shepard spoke before he ended up getting more ridiculous.

"Alright thanks for coming to speak to me Shepard." Garrus nodded grin still in place. Shepard returned the nod before heading to the elevator to go back up to the CIC, they still needed to find the exact planet that the Prothean ruins were on and in turn hopefully the matriarchs daughter.

* * *

When Shepard entered the CIC he made his way to the galaxy map to start the search. Shepard started with the Athens system, though the five planets in it yielded no results for the ruins. Shepard went on the comm to Joker to set a course for the Knossos system, Joker replied with an affirmative before heading for the mass relay. The first planet that Shepard scanned showed little of interest, Phaistos was a small desolate world which held little interest other than a scorching heat. Armeni was a world with an unusual thin atmosphere that was the subject of a court battle over crypts left by a long extinct space-faring race. Zakros was a planet with a frigid surface made of water, ice and hydrocarbon slush, that for most parts of its surface was not solid enough to support the full weight of a ship. Not a place that was likely to hold the ruins of an ancient civilization. Archanes was a small hydrogen-helium gas giant that was developed as a small stopover for ships transporting refined materials from Therum, and if Prothean ruins existed on that planet they hadn't been found yet. By the time they got around to Therum Shepard was getting bored of the search, though he didn't let it show on his face. He hoped that they didn't have to go through the entire Artemis Tau cluster to find the planet that the Prothean ruins were located on and so he was relieved when scanning Therum, that the probe returned with a report on the appearance of ruins that appeared to be Prothean in origin. Nihlus who had appeared some time ago in the CIC came to stand behind Shepard after the discovery.

"Have you found something Shepard?" He asked questioningly.

"Yes it seems that Therum seems to be home to the Prothean ruins were looking for." Shepard replied.

"Any geth activity?"

"Scanners are picking up multiple geth ship signals around the site of the ruins. Ground activity is minimal."

"It seems like the geth have been here for awhile."

"Hopefully they haven't found Liara T'Soni yet then." Shepard opened the comm to the cockpit. "Joker how close can you get us to the Prothean ruins?"

"You're going to need the Mako Commander. Closest drop zone is a few miles away." Joker's voice came back over the comm.

"Thanks Joker, be ready." Joker gave an affirmative before the comm shut off again.

"We're going to have to move fast Shepard. I'm going to grab my gear and I'll meet you by the Mako." Nihlus told Shepard before moving off back to his quarters. Shepard brought the comm up again and contacted Tali in engineering.

"Shepard, what can I do for you? She asked.

"We've found the Prothean ruins on Therum and I want you to be apart of the ground team to help deal with the geth, so meet us by the Mako when you're ready Tali." Shepard answered her.

"Of course, I'll be right there Shepard." Tali responded.

"Thanks Tali." Shepard cancelled the transmission and contacted Garrus.

"Commander." Garrus answered.

"Garrus we've found the ruins on Therum and so I want you on the ground team. We're going to be taking the Mako as we can't get close enough for the Normandy to do a drop. Get your gear and meets us by the Mako, Nihlus and Tali will be there shortly." Shepard told him.

"I'm on it Commander." Garrus replied.

"See you shortly." Shepard cut the communications and turned from the galaxy map heading for the elevator back to his quarters to get into his armour. Hopefully they'll be able to reach the Asari in time before the geth get their hands on her.

* * *

**AN: ****So I hope that went ok. I know it isn't as long as the last chapter but I couldn't get any more in without either a) waffling or b) writing stuff that has nothing to do with the chapter. I'm glad to be into the plot more and I think Shepard's little dream went well. Also glad to have gotten some Garrus/Shepard banter in, it took me so long to write that bit up as I was completely stumped. If anyone hadn't guessed I was listening to music while I was writing this, like usual, and that bit at the start was done while listening to Utada Hikaru's Sakura Nagashi. So next chapter we finally complete our squad and we get some epic Mako driving from Shepard, that's really going to end well ^^. **

**Chapter 4: Therum. **


	4. Chapter 4: Therum

Mass Effect 1: It Begins

Chapter 4: Therum

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**AN: ****So here is Chapter 4: Therum. Enjoy and remember I don't own Mass Effect otherwise it would have been sooooo much different, you can probably guess one area that would be. ^^**

* * *

The Normandy swept down across the sky of Therum, the volcanic landscape passing by as the squad approached the drop zone. Thankfully they hadn't come across any of the geth yet so for now they still didn't know that they were here. Shepard sat at the front in the driver's seat of the Mako preparing for when Joker made the drop, to his left sat Garrus who was manning the machine gun and behind them sat Nihlus and Tali. As they approached the coordinates joker reached the commander over comm.

"Making the drop in 3, 2, 1." Then there was a lurch as the Mako was released and went falling down to the surface of Therum. Shepard applied the thrusters to slow the descent as they came closer and as they made contact there was a crash as the Mako bounced and rolled along the surface eventually coming to a stop.

"Everyone ok?" Shepard turned to the rest of the squad.

"Fine." They acknowledged.

"Shepard according to this scan the entrance to the Prothean ruins is north-west of here. No geth signals as of yet." Nihlus held up his Omni-tool, looking at something on the screen.

"We can make our way around the mountain side if we go that way." Garrus pointed out ahead, there was a wide ledge that ran around the side of the mountain next to the flowing lava.

"Shouldn't be difficult." Shepard commented before messing with the controls and the Mako jumped forward as he manoeuvred it around to the side of the mountain. The rocky landscape passed beside them as they sped along, lava flowing below them and the Mako jolted every now and then as it went over the uneven surface. As the land began to widen again they heard a noise overhead and a geth dropship flew past them, it started to eject presumably geth from it up ahead on the more open landscape before it took off again in another direction.

"Didn't take them long to find us." Tali spoke up.

"If we keep moving it won't matter. It only seemed to drop a few geth up ahead and the Mako can deal with that fine." Shepard told her. The Mako drove up over the ridge onto the open landscape, the movement drawing the attention of the geth that had been dispatched. Garrus took fire at a rocket trooper in the distance that was blown to pieces from the Mako's machine gun. Shepard drove around to the side as Garrus picked off a couple of troopers before a geth armature came into sight. Shepard lurched the Mako to the side as the geth armature fired a pulse at them before he crashed it into a rock, another pulse came there way and Shepard activated the thrusters to rise them out of the way of the blast. When they landed again Garrus opened fire on the geth armature as Shepard reversed the Mako, the machine gun weakening its shields before Shepard made another sharp turn to avoid another pulse. As Shepard managed to gain control of the Mako again Garrus had depleted the geth armatures shields completely, before it could take fire again Shepard drove the Mako at full speed straight at the geth armature.

"Shepard what are you doing?" Garrus's voiced called to him alarmed.

"What does it look like?" He replied before they crashed straight into the geth armature. It squealed cries of clicks and mechanical noises before it collapsed under them and shut down completely too damaged by the collision to continue. The squad just turned to Shepard and stared, who then grinned.

"What? I didn't think that was so bad, better than usual anyway."

"Oh Keelah." Tali muttered.

"Maybe try a little less geth ramming in the future Shepard." Garrus quipped, Nihlus agreeing with him.

"It worked didn't it?" Shepard countered before driving the Mako forward again. They moved through a tunnelled area that was filled with more geth, most noticeably the rocket troopers that appeared at the other end of the tunnel. Shepard weaved the Mako back and forth to dodge the rockets coming their way as Garrus took them down with the turret. They emerged from the other side, flying over the ledge and down the ramp as more geth appeared shooting at them from behind cover. One of the geth went down from the turret as Shepard drove over the other two and they were crumpled under the wheels. They continued on mostly undisturbed for the next few minutes as the land rose on both sides of them, however once they rounded a bend a problem became apparent. At the end of the narrow path they were driving down was a building complex, the most noticeable feature however was the two turrets that were planted in front of it and were pointed in their direction. Shepard brought the Mako to a halt by a large boulder as Nihlus addressed him.

"We won't be going that way or those turrets will shred us."

"There seems to be another path over that way." Shepard pointed. "It might lead us around the back of it." He suggested.

"Seems to be the best option." Nihlus nodded. Shepard started the Mako again and drove off to the side down the new path. It turned sharply back on itself which was a good sign as it took them back in the direction of the complex from the back and there was no turret in sight. Shepard drove the Mako to the open door, leaving it sideways to the opening. The squad exited from the left so that they had cover if there was any geth waiting to jump out on them and they approached the door cautiously. The squad took up position by the door before Shepard entered first, the room was clearly used for storage as it was filled with various crates and Shepard motioned for the others to enter. As they made their way around the side a geth trooper came into sight. Shepard pulled it crashing into the floor in front of them with his biotics and Tali finished it with her shotgun. They made their way to the door into the courtyard complex and looked out onto the landscape, they could see geth taking up positions waiting for them to exit.

"We need to find the gate controls if we want to continue on with the Mako." Tali spoke up. "That building over there next to the main gate is probably the best bet." Tali gestured at the building opposite them over the courtyard.

"We could do with a distraction right about now." Shepard mused. He focused his attention on a selection of gas canisters, grasping a few with his biotics and made a sweeping motion. The canisters went flying over the courtyard to where a group of the geth were hiding and exploded on impact, pieces of geth flying over the place. Garrus and Nihlus moved forward into opposite covers just outside of the door, drawing sniper rifles to pick off the geth with as they appeared from their hiding places in response to the explosion. Tali drew a pistol and sent out a combat drone to ferret out the geth into her sight and Shepard pulled out his pistol and fired at the geth closest. Tali overloaded the shields on two geth across from her allowing Garrus and Nihlus to take them down with a well placed shot each. Shepard pushed a geth back into the wall behind it and fired at it until the light went out. Then turning his attention to two geth taking cover behind a crate he raised both arms and the crate shuddered before his biotics took hold fully and he lifted it, tossing it to the side exposing the geth. Tali hacked one of the geth which turned and gunned down the other before she finished the other one off with her pistol. After the courtyard was clear they made their way to the building that held the gate controls and entered. Other than a lone geth that went down rather quickly between them nothing else stood in the way. Shepard approached the controls and pushed the button, the mechanical sound of the gate lowering could be heard as they made their way back outside and to the Mako. Shepard drove it through the courtyard and out the other side continuing on the path to the evacuation site. Nothing much else happened for awhile other than Shepard managing to crash the Mako again into a rocky wall as he misjudged a turning, claiming that the wheel slipped as he did and the others made an internal vow never to go with Shepard again if he used the Mako.

As they started to go up a rise they noticed that up ahead the rocky walls began to narrow greatly and came to a small opening that was too small for the Mako to fit through. Shepard looked up, even with the thrusters the height of the wall was too much to try and get the Mako over. Before he could say anything Garrus followed his gaze and shook his head at him.

"Don't even think about it Shepard." He said as Shepard opened his mouth.

"I was just going to say that we're going to have to go on foot from here." He quirked his eyebrow at Garrus.

"Good." He sighed. Shepard suppressed a grin at the looks of relief on the other twos faces, imaging that Tali probably looked the same under the mask. The squad exited the Mako and made their way through the gap and continued up the rise. Coming up to a level section they heard approaching footsteps, the squad took up position behind some boulders and readied themselves. Geth appeared from around the corner and Shepard launched a singularity at them dragging them into the air as Tali sent a incinerate their way and the geth burst into flame. Shepard finished them off with a warp and the remains of the geth went flying into the ground. A few more geth appeared from around the corner which Nihlus and Garrus made quick work of with the combined fire from their assault rifles. The squad moved up with their weapons drawn as they turned around the corner the geth appeared from, pieces of machinery and other bits and pieces of equipment being revealed to them. Buildings could be seen in the distance at the top of a hill, the geth were moving between them as they approached their position.

"We must be getting close now, the entrance to the ruins will most likely be up there among those buildings." Nihlus suggested.

"The geth seem to be doing whatever they can to stop us from getting there." Tali spoke up as the geth came closer, some almost at firing range.

"Let's take them out." Shepard responded motioning to the others to take cover as he moved forward. Tali joined him beside the crate he took cover behind as Garrus and Nihlus swapped out for their sniper rifles, looking to take out geth in the distance that were above them on a walkway. Shepard gathered his strength, his biotics flared and he threw a shockwave of continuous energy forward scattering the geth that were making their way to them. Tali summoned her combat drone to keep them distracted as she fired with her pistol at the geth that were thrown to the floor. Shepard sent two geth that were just picking themselves up crashing into each other again and they crashed back into the ground, finishing them off with his pistol. Garrus and Nihlus continued to pick off geth on the walkway, the geth bodies falling from the walkway into the ground with each echoing shot. Loud clicking and whirring noises could be heard as two geth destroyers appeared, charging at the group with their weapons drawn. Shepard stopped one with a stasis and the other continued their way, Tali and Garrus managed to disabled its shielding with a combined overload in a burst of static. With a forceful warp from Shepard and well placed shots from Nihlus they managed to get it to collapse into the ground. The other destroyer started moving again as the stasis lost its hold, resuming its charge at the squad. Shepard raised his arms, biotics glowing as the air around the geth shimmered before its feet left the ground and it was suspended in thin air. Garrus took shots at it before finishing its shields off with an overload, Tali then sent a incinerate towards it and as it began eating through its armour Nihlus finished it off with his assault rifle. Shepard dropped the biotics and the geth destroyer crashed back down in pieces.

"That's the last of them." Garrus's voice called out from behind Shepard.

"Lets move on up before reinforcements arrive." Shepard replied. The squad holstered their weapons and hurried forward. As they moved up the hill all was quiet, the buildings were seemingly deserted of any other life and the people that had been here before were long gone now with the appearance of the geth that had invaded the site. They moved slowly through the few buildings on guard for any geth ambushes that may lay in wait. As they approached a open space the squad noticed to their right was a series of steps that led to a circular door in the face of the rock, it was at an angle that suggested it went down steeply.

"That must be the way in to the ruins." Shepard said as they approached. As they crossed the space between them and the door, a small click clack of something moving on metal could be heard and in the quiet the sound seemed magnified. The squad drew their weapons and looked at the area around them looking for the culprit. Something jumped across Shepard's vision and he swung around to follow it, on an opposing wall was a geth that looked lither than the others and it quickly moved again from its position to somewhere else out of sight. Before the squad could do much more the sound of a ship could be heard approaching overhead, as it came into view it was revealed to be another geth drop ship and along with more geth something large seemed to be expelled from it as well. It crashed into the ground before it shook and picked itself up, planting four large feet into the ground and raising its head up over the squad as it came online.

"Geth Armature!" Nihlus shouted and the squad took to cover before the Armature could take aim. The other geth began talking up positions around the Armature and began to advance on the Squad. The geth hopper appeared again on the underside of a walkway, before it could jump again to another position Shepard reached forward and grasped it with his biotics wrenching it off the walkway towards them, Tali took aim with her shotgun and managed to take its head clean off as it crashed into the dirt in a heap. The Armature launched a blast of plasma at Shepard and Garrus, the duo ducked into cover to avoid it and the earth shook when it landed. Tali overloaded the shields on the geth troopers and Nihlus took them down with sniper shots. Shepard leaned out of cover and launched a warp at another geth hopper, when it impacted the geth it was thrown off the wall as it was shredded into pieces. Soon enough all that was left was the Geth Armature, it stood alone out in the open and continued to fire periodically at their position. The earth was thrown up again as another blast fell in front of them, Tali and Garrus combined their overloads to deplete its shields and Shepard attacked it with a warp. The Armature's shields flickered before they collapsed with as shattering sound, it seemed to flinch back and made a groaning sound. The Squad fired continuously at the Armature and dodged its fire as it moved about on its feet. Shepard saw a highly damaged piece of its armour, he used his biotics to tear it off and exposed the inner wiring. Taking the opportunity Nihlus threw a grenade at the opening in the Armature, it collided with its side and exploded in a ball of fire. The Armature made a high pitched squealing sound as it was knocked off its feet, set a flame by the grenade and collapsed on the ground. Then there was another explosion and pieces of the armature were thrown in different directions, then there was no more and the Armature ceased to make a sound. The squad made their way over to the wreckage.

"Finally, that thing was stubborn." Garrus commented.

"Let's move, we haven't got any time to lose." Shepard turned to the entrance to the ruins and moved up the stairs, the others quickly moved to join him as they approached the door.

* * *

The squad moved quickly down the tunnel, eventually coming to an elevator that went down to a series of walkways and stairs going down into the dirt. In front of them was a big structure, pale in colour and the openings in it were covered in some form of blue shimmering shield. There was various excavation equipment lying about below them and a giant laser drill was set up near the base of the structure. The squad exited the elevator on alert for more geth, they walked down the walkways approaching the big structure. A geth rocket trooper popped up across from them, Shepard yanked it up into the air keeping it suspended in a field and Garrus shot it through the head with his sniper. Shepard dropped it back into the floor and they moved onwards, more geth appearing to attempt to halt them which they managed to put down effectively between them. Nearing the structure, they went up in another elevator and heard a voice call out as they moved from the elevator onto the front of the structure. Walking along the structure they came to once of the open spaces in it that led into its interior. Suspended in a ball that seemed to be of the same type of shielding that was on the front of the structure was an Asari. She was a pale blue and seemed to be in a panic at her situation, she wore a white and green outfit that revealed her to be a scientist.

"Who are you? Do you work with Saren?" She eyed the assembled group.

"I'm Commander Shepard, this is Garrus Vakarian, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Nihlus Kryik." Shepard gestured to each of them as he spoke their name. "We sent by the Council to stop Saren after his treachery was uncovered. Are you Liara T'Soni?" He asked her.

"Thank the goddess, yes that is me. Can you help me? I trapped myself in here trying to get away from the geth, I think I triggered some security feature when I engaged the barriers." Liara spoke rapidly.

"Why is Saren interested in you?"

"I've been studying the Protheans for the last fifty years, whatever he wants has something to do with them and I imagine he thinks I'd be able to help him." She gave Shepard a hard look. "He contacted me, I refused to help him, he sent the geth after me and a Krogan mercenary on top of that."

Shepard took a moment to reply. "I believe you, but how do we get you out of there? Is there no way you can turn off this security field?"

"There is but its all behind here and I can't get to it trapped like this. The geth have been trying to get in here for hours."

"So we need to find a way to get behind this shielding to be able to shut it off?" Shepard asked, wondering what the hell they were going to do. The walls were pretty thick, the shielding was doing its job keeping them out.

"There is a mining laser on the lower level and some places in the wall are weak with their age, you might be able make opening for yourself." Liara offered.

Shepard thought it was as good a suggestion as any, not being able to come up with any immediate solution himself and they needed to move fast before the geth showed up. "Hold tight Liara will get you out of there."

"Thank you." She replied.

The squad moved back to the elevator and back down to the lower level. They made their way over to the mining laser where Tali studied it, she said that they needed to find a code to be able to fire the laser. After looking around they managed to find it on a datapad, Tali inputted the code and configured the laser. The mining laser came to life as Tali worked at the controls, it shook as the position was changed slightly and with a 'here we go' from Tali it fired. The red light streaked across the air and struck the wall at the base of the structure. There was a boom and the earth shook, dust and dirt could be seem being thrown up into the air and as the shaking settled the squad could see that the mining laser had succeeded. Now there was a big opening in the base of the wall, easily big enough for them all to pass through and it went all the way through to the other side. Shepard congratulated Tali and they all made their way back over into the inside of the structure. The squad made their way to the upper level that Liara was located on and approached her from behind. She turned her head to them as they approached.

"You made it!" She exclaimed.

"It worked thankfully. Now how do we disable this shield?" He asked her.

Liara turned her head again and looked at a console to her left just below her. "This console here, it was what I used to enable the shield and hopefully it will turn it off as well."

Shepard approached it cautiously, not wanting to make things worse by pressing the wrong thing. He surveyed the console and pressed a couple of buttons that hopefully would disable the shield. With a humming noise the shielding flickered before it vanished completely, Liara fell to the floor on one knee.

"Are you ok?" Shepard asked, approaching her. Liara stood and turned to face Shepard.

"I'm fine thank you Shepard. I don't want to be here when the geth turn up, now the shields down they'll come back." Liara told Shepard and he nodded his head to her.

"Then lets get out of here."

They all made their way to the inner chamber onto a circular disk. Liara approached a console in the middle of it.

"This is an elevator, we can take it to the top and there is an exit to the outside up there." She spoke as she looked down at the console and then pressed a few buttons. The elevator lit up and rose up at a steady speed, as it moved there was a rumbling sound that shook them all.

"What was that?" Nihlus looked around.

"The mining laser must of started off a seismic event, we need to get out of here before everything collapses." Liara answered him as she too looked around at the walls. The elevator eventually reached the top and the group tried to make their way over to the corridor that led away from it. Before they got far a group of geth approached them, leading them was a large Krogan that looked like trouble. He strode forward towards them, staying at a distance.

"That's far enough, hand over the doctor." He said gruffly. Liara stepped back slightly and Shepard moved to stand in front of her.

"That's not going to happen, walk away." He said shortly, not backing down from the Krogan.

"Good I was hoping you'd say that." He grinned.

"Don't you see this place? Its falling about we need to get out now or we will all die." Shepard tried to explain, exasperated.

"Just makes it all the more exciting, don't you think? Kill them, leave the Asari alive." The Krogan gestured to the squad and the geth moved forward. Shepard threw his palm forward, collecting biotic energy and pushed it at the Krogan. It slammed into the Krogan knocking him off his feet and flying backwards. The geth raised their weapons at the Squad, Shepard raised a biotic barrier as the geth fired and then dispersed it outwards confusing the geth as some of them were knocked to the ground and disorientated. Liara moved behind the elevator console taking cover from the fight as the others pulled out their weapons. Tali incinerated one geth before blowing it into pieces with her shotgun and Nihlus threw a grenade at a group of geth sending them flying as it exploded, before he took aim with his assault rifle and finished them off. Garrus was taking out geth quickly with his sniper rifle and Shepard was taking shots with his pistol. The Krogan had got back on his feet by this point, with an angry shout he charged forward throwing a mass of biotic energy there way. Shepard blocked it with a warp as the squad rounded on the Krogan, Shepard took out his barrier with a biotic attack and Tali overloaded the shields. The Krogan continued to charge, heading for Shepard when he then started to be ridden with bullets courtesy of Nihlus and a sniper round to the head dropped him from Garrus.

* * *

The group weren't given any time as the ground shook violently again, Shepard yelled for them to move and they all ran down the corridor. Shepard managed to contact the Normandy, telling them that they needed an emergency evac from their position. They emerged into a place similar to the entrance, there was various walkways leading away from the top level of the structure on this side and they were attached to the rock wall. In the distance was a great hole in the rock, a manmade tunnel running up towards the surface and to safety. The group moved forward at a fast pace, the place around them shaking more frequently and violently as they moved forward. Lava started to explode out of various rocky surfaces behind them and the walkways began to collapse. Liara stumbled and Shepard turned to help her up, he pulled her to her feet and pushed her forwards as the walkway around them began to collapse. The ground shook violently and Shepard was thrown off balance, tumbling backwards off the platform.

"Shepard!" A three taloned hand grasped his arm pulling him forwards before he fell to the earth below. Garrus held his arm in a vice grip as he pulled him forwards towards him as they ran, Shepard continued to run forwards along the walkway which was began to shake even more. They thankfully made it into the tunnel and ran up towards the surface as fast as they could, wanting to stay ahead of the lava that was no doubt going to be behind them. The group emerged from the tunnel into glaring sunlight, running along the platform before them. There was the sound of a ship overhead and the Normandy came into view, flying over them before lowering and turning to the side. The door opened and the group jumped for it, collapsing into the entrance of the Normandy trying to catch their breath. The Normandy rose and began to speed away, before the door closed Shepard saw lava spew forth from the tunnel entrance below them. Shepard sat back looking to Garrus next to him who was still holding his arm, Shepard placed his hand over his.

"Close one." Garrus breathed out, Shepard nodded slightly.

"Thanks Garrus." He said sincerely.

* * *

**AN: ****Done finally, sorry this update was so long but with proper work to do, getting ready for Christmas and then Christmas itself I haven't had loads of time to write. Hope you all had a great Christmas, I always love Christmas and this one was no exception. I think this chapter went well, wasn't sure at first but then I got into it and I quite like where it ended up. We will be going to Feros next after a little down time next chapter and I already have some semblance of a plot for it. I'll be writing it in the order that I usually play the game, Therum, Feros, Virmire, Noveria and some in-between bits. Garrus mission will come up as well obviously. Anyway until next time, enjoy the holidays!**

**Next Chapter: Poor Mako.**


	5. Chapter 5: Poor Mako

Mass Effect 1: It Begins

Chapter 5: Poor Mako

* * *

**AN: ****Next chapter is here, finally. I quite like this chapter and I think it went well, I quite like the ending as well so enjoy.**

* * *

The Normandy floated through the quiet of space after they left Therum, getting as far from the gathered geth as they could. The complete squad was gathered in the comm room to introduce Liara and get her up to speed on what had happened considering she had been cut off from any news for some time before Saren came after her and everything that followed that. The expressions going around the room ranged from distrust, intrigue and complete disinterest. Liara sat patiently while Shepard explained, while the others added their own bits in when discussion turned to them. Liara had started to fire off a million and one questions when the Prothean beacon had come up, but had quietened down when Shepard said she could ask all the questions she wanted when he had finished. Shepard explained how they had revealed Saren's betrayal to the Council and been given the mission of apprehending him, finishing with the Therum lead and finding her. Liara explained a little about her work on Therum studying the Prothean ruins and trying to understand what caused them to be completely wiped out from existence. Liara had also heard of the reaper story, though with what little Prothean data there is, trying to find any facts was difficult. As predicted the conversation came back around to the Prothean beacon and although Shepard listened patiently he honestly could not answer her questions other that what it had done. The Council had taken the pieces left from the beacon to see if there was anything they could learn from the fragments with their research teams and that left Liara without the opportunity to even see it herself, much to her disappointment. Naturally Liara began to question Shepard about his vision and its connection to the beacon, trying to help piece together what it meant. Shepard told her how it seemed broken, like he hadn't gotten the whole message or whatever it had tried to do. Liara had seemed awed that he had managed to make what sense of it he did, the beacon being designed for Prothean physiology could have utterly destroyed his mind, yet it didn't.

"I'm sorry that I can't be much help to you, though maybe with my knowledge of the Protheans I might be able to help you later on." Liara seemed slightly down that she couldn't do much to help, though Wrex managed to fix that without even realising.

"Your biotics wouldn't hurt either when everything goes to hell." He chuckled.

"I suppose your right." She said abit unsure. Shepard approached her and held his hand out to her.

"Welcome to the team Liara."

"Thank you Shepard. I can't imagine anywhere being safer from Saren than here." Liara took his hand and shook it lightly. Liara seemed to stumble on her feet slightly, hand raised to her head "Oh, I feel, a little, light headed. May I go lie down for awhile, today has been quite a shock."

"You should let the ship doctor have a look at you first, she is very knowledgeable." Nihlus spoke to Liara, giving the impression it wasn't a option.

"Yes, I think I may do that." Liara spoke again, looking to Shepard.

"Go ahead Liara, I'll talk to you later." Liara nodded before approaching the door and leaving the room. Before anyone else could speak Joker's voice came over the comm system.

"The mission report has been filed and the Council want to talk to you Commander."

"Thank you Joker. Everyone you're dismissed." The rest of the people present left the room before Shepard addressed Joker again. "Patch them through." Joker gave the affirmative before his voice cut out again and Shepard approached the comm terminal that the Council would appear at. The terminals lit up as the projections of the Council appeared, Shepard saluting at their appearance.

"Shepard we've read your report on Therum and how Liara T'Soni is now aboard the Normandy." Councillor Valern addressed Shepard.

"Are you sure that you can trust her Shepard? She may be working for her mother." Councillor Sparatus interjected.

"She has helped us so far and she had the opportunity to take us down when we rescued her on Therum." Shepard pointed out.

"We didn't know that Matriarch Benezia was capable of this, who knows what is possible of her daughter. For know I believe that she should be given the benefit of the doubt, just keep a close eye on her Shepard." Councillor Tevos warned Shepard.

"I shall Councillor." Shepard agreed.

"What has she told you so far?" Councillor Valern asked.

"She hasn't said much so far, I believe she was in shock from what happened to her. Her knowledge of the prothean race may help us understand what the beacon is for."

"That is understandable, when she is recovered talk with her again. She may be able to help us figure out what the conduit is for."

"Shepard we've had reports that the geth presence in the Theseus System has increased, they may be coming close to what they're after on Feros or more desperate." Councillor Sparatus warned.

"That being the case you should make Feros your next priority." Councillor Tevos suggested.

"I'll have our pilot set a course for the nearest relay." Shepard answered.

"Very well Shepard, we will be awaiting your next report." Councillor Sparatus finished, each of the Councillors projections reaching forward to turn off their terminals and the images faded.

* * *

Shepard turned from the terminal and left the comm room, he approached the galaxy map and set a course for Feros. He confirmed the course with Joker and went down to deck 2 to check in on Liara. She seemed much better than before and was impressed with Dr Chakwas knowledge on Asari physiology. She admitted that she hadn't had much interaction with Shepard's species and was unsure of how to react. She also admitted that she had spent much of her time alone, preferring the quite of her research sites over the crowds. Shepard probed gently about her mother and whether she knew anything about what she was trying to do with Saren. Liara admitted she may not of been close with her mother, but she vehemently believed that her mother will have had a good reason for why she had joined Saren and that there was more too it than what had been suggested. Shepard trusted her judgement on her mother and just hoped whatever her other reason maybe, wasn't just something worse. After leaving Liara to her work Shepard made the rounds on the ship, bumping into Nihlus in the mess. He agreed that Liara would be an asset and it was highly doubtful that she was working for Saren, that or she was a very good actress. Shepard asked him if that was what he thought, Nihlus shrugged saying he had a gut feeling about it and it was usually right. Shepard couldn't argue with that having felt pretty similar things himself before. Kaidan approached Shepard after Nihlus was on his way, asking about his opinion on the last mission. Shepard told him that the mission went well, rescuing Liara and keeping her out of Saren's clutches was the important thing, it just came at the cost of the prothean ruins. Kaidan agreed with that before going back to his work and Shepard made his way to the elevator. Wrex was standing in his usual place, though from his shifting about seemed restless. Shepard walked over to him and Wrex greeting him with his grunted 'Shepard' of acknowledgement. Shepard asked him if he was ok and Wrex told him how his scales 'itched' and he needed to see some action. Shepard agreed to take him when they arrived on Feros and Wrex just nodded with a 'thanks'. Shepard thought that a restless Krogan itching for a fight was the last thing that they wanted onboard a ship and it would be much easier for him to work it out on some geth than other crewmembers. Ashley was bent over the workbench dismantling an assault rifle when Shepard approached her, she turned towards him when she noticed his approached and nodded towards him with her usual 'skipper' greeting. As Shepard talked with Ashley her distrust of Liara became apparent, he told her that all people deserved a chance to prove themselves and weren't carbon copies of their parents. She agreed to give it some thought and Shepard just hoped that he wouldn't have to pull rank just to get her to cooperate with Liara, Ashley didn't seem to be that stubborn as to not be able to get over her distrust to work with alien crew members.

* * *

When Ashley got back to her work Shepard turned to the area of the cargo bay that housed the Mako, or what was the Mako. Mechanical parts and rubbish lay about the Mako in heaps, the Mako itself seeming to have been partially dismantled and there were various tools laid out on one side of the Mako in a tool kit. Shepard approached the Mako cautiously, hearing sounds from underneath it as well as some muttering.

"Garrus are you under there?" Shepard Questioned, he wanted to thank Garrus properly for pulling him forward on Therum. The muttering ceased and shuffling could be heard, Garrus armoured hands appeared from underneath the Mako and he pulled himself out from underneath it. He stood and swiped some muck off from his armour as he turned towards Shepard.

"Just removing more broken pieces of geth from under the Mako is all." He stated.

"Are you alright Garrus?" Shepard asked.

"Did you have to bulldoze every geth you came across, I'm fairly certain I could build a few geth from what I'm pulling out from under there." He gestured to the heap around his feet.

"Yeah, I probably should have warned you about that." Shepard rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

"Probably?" Garrus raised a brow ridge at him.

"Ok I should have mentioned something about how I'm not exactly the best driver in the world." He rolled his eyes at Garrus sarcasm with a grin.

"That's an understatement, Shepard." Garrus grinned back.

"Fine alright I'm terrible, could never really get the hang off it in training."

"You wouldn't be able to notice. The Mako poor thing probably didn't know what hit it…. repeatedly. " Garrus smirked.

"Of course Garrus. Do you want some help fixing up this spectacular damage?"

"Spectacular? Look at this baby, its going to take all day and night to fix this. I'm going to need all the help I can get with this one." Garrus looked around with a mock exasperated expression.

"Alright then, I'll help you out. What do you need first?" Shepard replied bringing his hands together.

"I've cleared out most of the scrap from underneath the Mako, just abit more then I'll be able to see what I'm dealing with. I'll pass you stuff from underneath and you can dump it into a pile that we can get rid of later, ok?" Garrus finished waited for Shepard's reply.

"Fair enough." He nodded. Garrus turned to crawl back under the Mako, disappearing from view as Shepard moved to stand by the Mako. Garrus proceeded to remove more geth parts and pass them to Shepard who piled them all up, cleaning up the other bits and pieces chucked about as he did so. After another half hour Garrus pulled himself from under the Mako and glanced over at the heap of geth pieces, giving Shepard a look with his brow ridge raised. Shepard followed his look to the heap, getting at what he was thinking he turned back to him.

"It was completely necessary, no other option, they had to be bulldozed." He stated. Garrus started to grin before turning away from him to the Mako.

"Of course it was Shepard, now I can see what I'm doing under there it doesn't look too bad, mostly superficial." He brushed his talons over a scratch on the side.

"See I knew what I was doing." He came to stand beside Garrus.

"So ramming the Mako into a rock face was planned was it?" Garrus looked over at Shepard still grinning, Shepard sputtering at the comment.

"I was testing the Mako's limits, you never know what's going to happen." He nodded his head a couple of times after he had thought of that. Garrus didn't say anything else but Shepard thought he heard a rumbling coming from the Turian standing beside him and when he looked he saw Garrus shoulders shaking.

"Your laughing at me aren't you?" Shepard said, knowing full well he was.

"I'm sorry Shepard but just." Garrus turned towards him mandibles wide. "Wow."

Shepard brought his hand to his face in a futile attempt to hide his red face and hoped Garrus didn't know what it meant.

"Shall we just finish with the Mako?" He asked, looking away from Garrus to the Mako.

"Sure Shepard." Garrus left it there, saving Shepard from any further embarrassment. Together they worked on the Mako, Garrus giving Shepard direction when he needed it and they managed to finish fixing the Mako pretty quickly. Garrus had been right that it had been mostly superficial problems and it had cut the time down greatly. They both stood back as Garrus admired the Mako.

"Perfect, not even a scratch." He spoke.

"I'm glad your baby is better now." Shepard rolled his eyes.

"Much better, lets try and keep her that way this time." Garrus turned to face Shepard, giving him a pointed look.

"Fine, I won't ram anymore geth." He agreed, not wanting to bring up the rock incident again and Garrus made a hum of agreement.

"See you later Garrus."

"See you around Shepard." Garrus nodded and approached the mess lying at the front of the Mako to clean up while Shepard moved towards the elevator. He wanted to clean up before he grabbed something to eat as he'd gotten in a mess while fixing up the Mako with Garrus, he smiled to himself at that, it had been fun actually. They had joked around and Garrus hadn't held back any teasing just because he was the Commander. It was nice to not be tip toed around all the time just because he was a higher rank than somebody, another thought occurred to him and he let out a groan. He had forgotten to thank Garrus for Therum.

* * *

Shepard left his quarters after he'd changed into something not covered in grease and dirt from the Mako, approaching the kitchen which was fairly empty other than a couple of people sitting about at few tables. There was no designated time for eating on the ship, most people would eat whenever they could manage due to working in shifts and you could probably find someone in the kitchen at most times other than in the night cycle. Shepard nodded to two crew members at a table he passed on his way to the counter, acknowledging their greeting to him when they saw him. Putting together his rations he went and sat at a free table, military food may give you all your requirements but he thought that the downside was it tasted like rubbish half of the time. He was there for a couple of minutes when he heard someone beside him, he turned to see Joker standing there with a tray of food.

"Hey Commander." Joker deposited his tray on the table and took the seat opposite him.

"Joker, I'm surprised you would leave the cockpit willingly." Shepard looked across at him.

"Well until I can get someone to bring food to the cockpit for me I'm stuck doing it myself." He replied with a grin, Shepard rolled his eyes at Joker.

"That's never going to happen joker."

"Can still hope." The pair of them proceeded to eat for the next few minutes before Joker looked over Shepard's shoulder at something with a grin before he addressed Shepard.

"Leaving the cockpit isn't so bad, at least there is plenty to look at." Shepard quirked an eyebrow at Joker who then elaborated.

"The female crew."

"Really Joker? It's not as if you could do anything anyway, regulations remember?" Shepard shook his head.

"Come on Commander, doesn't stop you being interested. Ashley's hot in that punch you in the face for looking at her wrong way."

"Ashley?"

"Well yeah, she talks about you a lot apparently." Joker seemed to give Shepard a wink. "Might have a thing for you."

"Not going to happen Joker, not my type." Shepard rolled his eyes.

"Really? All the better for me then." The grin was back in place and Shepard fought to keep his straight face.

"Well there must be someone you're interested in Commander." He leaned his forearms on the table conspiratorially. Just as Shepard opened his mouth to reply he heard the elevator doors open and Garrus appeared from around the corner, his armour not looking like it had been worked in for the past couple of hours. A small smile threatened to take over his neutral expression when he turned his eyes back to Joker.

"Joker, this is the alliance, not a slumber party."

"Ah, you're no fun Commander." Joker got up in a huff, taking his empty plate away and then probably back to the cockpit. Shepard allowed his face to split into the smile he had been holding back, Joker could definitely be quite the character at times and was certainly not dull. He got up to go make himself a hot drink before he returned to their most recent reports on Feros to prepare for what they might encounter there. When he retook his seat Garrus had walked over and taken the space Joker had just left behind with his own food rations.

"What was that about?" Garrus asked Shepard.

"Nothing really Joker just being, well Joker." He replied, still smiling.

"Hum, he's quite the character." Garrus agreed. He looked over at Shepard. "We're heading to Feros next right?"

"Yeah, the situation there has gotten bad and they don't have much time." He answered, hoping they wouldn't be too late.

"I wanted to thank you again for bringing me aboard Shepard, being able to work alongside a Spectre after all the red tape of the Citadel is, liberating." Shepard took a moment before he replied.

"You know most of the time the rules are there for a reason. You can't just charge blindly after a culprit all the time, you need to think about the repercussions." Garrus appeared thoughtful for a moment.

"I suppose your right, it's just frustrating." He offered weakly.

"I know, that's why were the good guys." Shepard took a drink from his mug before setting it down with an understanding smile. Garrus gave him a smile back and he looked over at Shepard's plate that still lay on the table, the smile morphing into a grin, mandibles open.

"You know, you really seem to eat a lot, might want to be careful." Garrus gestured at his plate before adding a "Commander" at Shepard incredulous look.

"I'm a biotic, we need to eat more calories to be able to do what we do." He replied turning up his nose before he grinned openly. "If you jealous I'm sure we can get plenty more dextro rations."

"Honestly Shepard, I'd rather not have to eat anymore than I have to." He stuck his fork into the mush on his plate with a grimace before shaking his head.

"Thanks anyway." He smirked. Shepard remembered what he had originally wanted to bring up before down in the cargo bay when he talked with Garrus. Shepard brought his hands together, before looking over at Garrus with a soft smile.

"I just wanted to say thank you properly Garrus for what you did on Therum, I wouldn't of been in a good position after that fall."

"Shepard you don't need to thank me, I wasn't just going to let you get hurt when I could stop it." Garrus sat back regarding the Commander, mirroring Shepard's expression in Turian terms. Shepard smile widened, until he felt that his cheeks had heated slightly and he looked down to avoid Garrus face. When he looked up Garrus was regarding his with a puzzled look.

"You ok Shepard?" He asked, noticing how Shepard's cheeks had seemed to change colour slightly.

"It's nothing Garrus." Shepard shook his head and the two of them continued to banter while Garrus ate and Shepard drank. Shepard remembered Jokers words from earlier 'There must be someone you're interested in Commander?' Shepard was glad to have avoided the question as he talked with Garrus, he would have had to lie otherwise.

* * *

**AN: ****So that's that. I'm sorry it has taken so long to write this chapter but I've been so busy with uni work. I started writing this chapter a few days after the last one and I was doing a decent amount of progress until I went back to university. Then unfortunately real work got in the way and I had to focus on an assignment, darn. But I finished that last week and handed it in so I had a few days to take a break and though why not work on this? I can promise you though that I will finish this story, I made the commitment as soon as I posted the first chapter. Another thing, when I say that I'm going to keep going and finish this story it doesn't mean an update every year or two like some other stories. I can't give a time to when I will update next but I will get it out as soon as I can. On another note I've just started watching an anime called Persona 4: The Animation, and it is awesome! I love stuff like this and I really want to write a story about it now, after this one of course and when I actually know what is going on in the story. I've already come up with my own persona and shadow conflict lol. I also want to get the game that it's based on now and I'm going to have get on ebay after this lol. **

**So anyway thanks everyone for the reviews and what not and hope you continue to enjoy this fic, until next time. :) **

**Next Chapter: Feros **


	6. Chapter 6: Feros

**Mass Effect 1: It Begins**

**Chapter 6: Feros**

* * *

**AN: ****Well here it is the next chapter of my Mass Effect story, sorry this has taken so long but well you'll see once you read it and realise how long it is. Disclaimer – I don't own mass effect, everything belongs to Bioware and anyone else that may have rights to it which sadly don't include me ^^.**

* * *

The Normandy entered the dust filled atmosphere of Feros, the ground far below them covered in the rubble of a once great Prothean megalopolis. The ship quickly made its way through the sky to the coordinates of Zhu's Hope, a colony founded by the ExoGeni Corporation to thoroughly explore the Prothean ruins that covered two thirds of the planet's surface. The colony was located on the higher levels of a number of clustered skyscrapers, supported by the aqueducts and hydroponic gardens left behind by the Protheans. As the Normandy approached the colony location they could see with their eyes what the scanners were telling them, in the air around the skyscrapers were geth dropships swooping in close to drop off foot soldiers and then returning to their patrol of the sky. The skyscrapers themselves seem to be worse for wear, mixed in with the rubble of the ancient Prothean civilisation were fires, smoke and more structural destruction caused only recently by the geth and not over 50,000 years ago.

As the Normandy came closer Joker tried to reach the colony over the comms to request a landing, but to no avail there was silence over the comm and not voices could be heard. Joker brought the Normandy up close to the skyscraper that the main body of Zhu's Hope was located on and brought it into an unused shipping dock that seemed to be relatively untouched by the geth attack and seemed to be deserted. Joker Checked the Normandy's systems once more once he had brought the ship to a stop and turned to look at Shepard over his shoulder who stood beside his chair.

"You're all set Commander, the colony should be only a few levels above us from this location." Joker brought up a holographic display of the skyscraper, first the Normandy's location lit up and then a second light flashed to represent the colonies location on the skyscraper. Shepard looked over at the display, dressed in his N7 armour and his pistol attached to his waist. Looking at the display they could easily see a stairway and elevator that would take them straight from the dock to the colony assuming it hadn't been damaged in some way. Nihlus stood beside him and agreed that the stairway should be relatively easy to pass through to the colony.

"Good work Joker, keep in radio contact." Joker made the affirmative and Shepard nodded turning to exit the cockpit with Nihlus, waiting just on the other side was Garrus and Wrex. Wrex was looking forward to a good fight and seemingly impatient to get off the ship, while Garrus seemed much more calm and patient going over his sniper rifle for one last check before they left.

"Looks like a lot of geth out there Shepard, lets show them why they shouldn't get in our way." Wrex grinned looking to Shepard as they approached. Garrus looked up at Wrex's words, folding the sniper rifle back up and fitting it onto his back as he joined the three of them.

"I'm ready for it." Garrus added in.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get out there." Wrex brought his fist together, making a deep thudding sound.

"The colony is a few levels above this dock, don't worry Wrex you'll get better of chances to take out some geth. Let's move out." Shepard addressed the three of them, moving towards the airlock as the other three moved to join him.

* * *

They exited the Normandy and stepped out onto the walkway, the place surrounding them looked like to have been left in a hurry when the geth attack had hit the colony. As they made their way to the end of the walkway a human came into view, having revealed them self form behind a stack of boxes. The squad who had gone straight to their weapons relaxed slightly at the clearly none geth sight and moved closer.

"My names David Al Talaqani, who are you? Have you come to help?" David asked of them, the man was of average height and wore an outfit that signalled him to be a labour if the state of it was anything to come by. He had dark skin and had black hair cut short close to his head.

"My name is Commander Shepard, this is Garrus Vakarian, Urdnot Wrex and Nihlus Kryik. We're with the Council and have come to help deal with the geth." Shepard gestured to the three beside him as he spoke their names.

"You need to talk to Fai Dan, he's our leader up in the main part of the colony." He jerked his head over his shoulder.

"What is the current situation?"

"I don't know the specifics its best if you just talk to Fai Dan." His facial expression remained neutral throughout their conversation.

"Fine, anything we should know?" Nihlus interjected.

"The geth are crawling all over the place you had better." But before David could finish his warning a there was a burst of gunfire and he was thrown to the ground. The squad quickly got into what limited cover they could and drew their weapons as a rocket came soaring overhead. Geth piled out of what they assumed led to the stairway, the troopers moving forward as the rocket troopers fired on their position. Nihlus threw a couple of grenades overhead at the troopers that approached, taking a couple out and disrupting the rest. Shepard raised a barrier in front of their cover to give them some room, one arm raised to maintain it while he shot at the troopers ducking though cover. Wrex joined his throwing a heavy throw at the geth knocking it over the side and blasting another to smithereens with his shotgun, while Nihlus open fired with his assault rifle. Garrus had drawn his sniper and after a quick overload took a rocket trooper out with a round to the head. The squad quickly finished the rest off and Shepard allowed the barrier to dissipate, Nihlus had crouched down to check on David Al Talaqani but he was clearly dead.

Not wasting any time the squad moved to the stairway checking to make sure that the coast was clear and they made their way up. After making their way up a couple of levels they heard the tell tale signs of more geth approaching, a geth hopper suddenly jumped across Shepard's vision not staying still long enough to land a shot as it moved from wall to wall. Another couple joined it, though it was hard to tell as they moved around so fast. As one stopped on a wall to try and fire on the group Shepard raised his arm wrenching it off the wall with his biotics and it slammed into the wall opposite collapsing to the floor, finished off by being impaled by pistol rounds from Shepard's gun. As the other two continued to move around on the walls Wrex launched a warp managing to strike it square across the chest, while the hopper tried to clutch onto the wall as the warp ate through its shielding and armour Wrex took it out with his shotgun. The last one was brought down by Nihlus and Garrus, the combination of overload and assault rifle fire crippling it no matter how much it tried to move.

The squad continued up the staircase watchful for more geth until they came to a landing a few levels up, across a door way was a barrier and two humans appeared from behind it.

"Identify yourself!" One yelled, a female voice as they aimed their weapons into the stairway.

"My name is Commander Shepard of the Normandy, we were sent by the Council to help you with the geth attack on your colony." He raised his voice to reply back, halting before they entered the line of sight of the two guards.

"Well your obviously not geth which is good enough, come through." They replied. Shepard and the others continued on to the landing and made their way to the opening out, the two guards looked relieved at their appearance.

"Fai Dan is our leader, you should find him on the other side of the colony and he'll be able to tell you more on what is going on." The first one told them, the same one that had held out to them from before by the sounds of her voice.

"Thank you, will do." He told her. The squad made their way into the colony proper past the guards.

* * *

The colony seemed to be little more than a collection of small buildings surrounding a downed freighter, as they moved through the colony it seemed that they had been hit hard by the attack. Various people looked to them as they passed through, some with hard looks as to demand what they were going to do about the situation while others appeared more hopeful. As the squad made their way through to the other side of the small colony two humans became visible beside a makeshift barrier near a doorway back into the skyscraper interior. One was a woman in heavy dark brown armour, she had a tanned face and short slightly curvy black hair. Her piercing eyes were focused on the man beside her as she heatedly discussed something with him. The man was in a civilian outfit though he had weapons strapped to his waist and back, he seemed older than the woman with his wrinkles and an almost shaven head. Shepard approached the two of them, assuming that the man was Fai Dan as he had been directed by the guards before the colony entrance on the other side.

"Are you Fai Dan?" Shepard asked.

"Yes that is me, I'm the leader of the colony and this is Arcelia Silva Martinez she is in charge of the colony defences." He tilted his head to the side indicating the woman beside him, who in response jerked her head in a stiff nod. "Who are you?"

"My name is Commander Shepard of the Normandy, this is Garrus Vakarian, Urdnot Wrex and Nihlus Kryik. We were sent by the Council to help repel the geth attack on the colony." Shepard replied.

"Lot of good that is now, going to defeat the entire geth force with 4 people are you?" She bit out aggressively, glaring at the squad.

"Arcelia! That's enough, there is not point arguing among ourselves now, I'm sorry Shepard." Fai Dan looked apologetic.

"Do you have any idea of why the geth would be here?" Shepard asked, thinking it would be best to just ignore Arcelia's outburst.

"We're clueless, there isn't anything of value here and why the geth would be bothered with Feros is beyond me." Shepard was about to ask something else when Arcelia shouted out about geth approaching and Fai Dan yelled to protect the heart of the colony. A geth rocket trooper emerged from the doorway to the skyscraper interior and launched a rocket at the group, Shepard hastily managed to redirect it slightly with his biotics causing it to skim just past them and exploding in some rubble. The geth didn't stand much chance by all the combined fire thrown their way, when the small group had fallen Shepard and his squad moved to the door as Fai Dan and Arcelia covered them. The squad entered the stairway cautiously, more geth were approaching down the stairway as the squad took up position and Shepard sent a throw slamming into the front geth trooper knocking it backwards into others as they readied themselves. Garrus had pulled out his sniper rifle and had taken out a hopper before it knew what had happened, while Wrex charged head first into the geth nearest to them swinging his shotgun at it and sending it over the side. Nihlus supported Wrex with gunfire taking out geth above them that were readying to open fire as Shepard launched a singularity dragging geth up into the air to be finished off by Garrus. The squad cleared out the staircase and made their way into an open aired area that was littered with huge chunks of rubble, which looking up had obviously come from the ceiling as it was open to the air. Hovering over the space was a geth dropship and as the squad made their way forward more units were sent crashing into the building, throwing up dirt and dust as they landed.

"Get into cover." Shepard instructed the others and they took up positions near the entrance to the stairway. More rocket troopers emerged from the dirt and fired their rockets at their position, the walls shook behind them as the rockets impacted. A warp from Wrex knocked one back and another throw from Shepard caused the biotic energy to explode, leaving the rocket trooper a couple of lumps of metal scrap. Garrus sniped the geth troopers as they tried to move forward on the squad, preventing them from leaving their cover without going down and Nihlus moved down and around the side through cover to take them out from the side. A geth destroyer made its way to the front, closing in on the squad before it charged and launched a powerful carnage making everyone duck into cover.

"Garrus, could use an overload over here." Shepard's voice called out over the comm, Garrus targeted the destroyer and brought up his omni tool releasing an overload to disrupt its shields. Nihlus fired on its now unprotected body but it kept going through the damage, when it neared Shepard's position he raised both his arms over his head as his biotics flared about him and the geth destroyer was pulled from the floor in a swirl of biotics. It continued over Shepard's head into the wall behind them with a crash and as Shepard held it there Wrex finished it with blasts from his shotgun. Another geth destroyer lurked near the back of the geth group, Garrus fired a few rounds at it to keep it busy and prevent it from getting to close and prepared another overload to get its shields out of the way. In a burst of static the shields dropped and the geth squealed in alarm, Garrus fired again and a chunk of its armour blasted off causing the geth to duck behind a pillar. Garrus trained the sniper on its position waiting for it to eventually try and make a move, it seemed content to just sit behind the pillar for the moment. However after a few moments Garrus could hear a screeching noise as the geth destroyer was forcibly pulled into view, alight in a mass of biotics as it was held above the ground struggling. Shepard had crept around the other side of their cover and had gotten the destroyer in his sights, then he had pulled it out into the open so that Garrus could finish it off. Garrus shot it right through the head and it dropped to the dirt, he looked around for Shepard and saw him off to the side who gave him a jerky wave and a grin. Shepard shot at the geth with his pistol while Nihlus did the same from the other side, Garrus stayed at the back taking out the geth with his sniper as Wrex moved forward through them. The geth didn't last much longer, failing to defend from the attacks coming from different directions and the last quickly fell. The squad reformed as the drop ship engines roared and it moved away.

"We should go back and inform Fai Dan." Nihlus told Shepard.

"Even if he doesn't know what they are after, he should at least be able to tell us where their grouping." Shepard replied, Nihlus nodded in agreement. The squad entered the stairway again and made their way back down, Garrus fell in step beside Shepard as Nihlus and Wrex went in front.

"You looked like you could use the help." Shepard commented.

"I had it right where I wanted it." Garrus shot back.

"Well you seemed to be getting a little frustrated so I just moved it along a bit." Shepard smirked back at Garrus.

"No chance, I can take out more geth than you." He replied smugly.

"You sure Garrus?"

"Why don't we have a little challenge then?" Shepard came to a stop, turning to Garrus who did the same.

"Bring it on Garrus, It's an easy win." He held out his hand and Garrus took it, the two shook on it and grinned at each other at the prospect of the win.

* * *

When the squad had made it back to Fai Dan Shepard had taken the lead again. Fai Dan looked to them as they approached, saying that the geth had calmed down for the moment.

"You don't know why the geth are here, but do you know where they are coming from at the least?" Shepard asked, picking up straight where they had left off.

"The geth drop ship comes from ExoGeni's headquarters across the skyway. You'll want to go there if you want to try and stop the geth." Arcelia cut it, her arms folded across her chest.

"That's where we will go then. Is there anything you need around here?" Shepard asked, looking around at the state of the colony.

"There are geth in the tunnels below us, they're coordinating their attacks through a transmitter of sorts. Getting rid of that will make things easier for us and harder for them."

"If you ask the people around here they'll be able to tell you more about getting the colony back on its feet." Fai Dan told Shepard.

"Alright then we'll see what we can do, then we'll head for the skyway." Shepard nodded to the pair before heading back into the colony, Fai Dan wishing them luck and to come find him if they need anything.

* * *

The colony was in a worse state that Shepard had thought, other than the geth in the tunnels the water supply to the colony had been cut of, there was a food shortage and a lack of power as well. They started with finding the transmitter in the tunnels, it would do the most help as it would completely decimate the geth's attack strategy and leave them in a mess. The geth seemed to know what they were trying to find, the further into the tunnels they went the heavier the geth forces became. Between the four of them however the geth couldn't stop them, the varied talents of the squad meant they could adapt to each situation and overcome each fight with ease. After they had gone deep into the tunnels they came across a duo of Krogan mercenaries, Shepard had forced them back with his biotics keeping them at a distance and reducing their ability to do damage greatly. The others then made quick work of the pair and they entered a small room littered with crates, in the far corner was the geth transmitter. The squad took care of the geth guarding it and they made sure to render the transmitter useless, leaving it completely beyond repair. After that main issue had been removed they got to work on bringing the colony itself back up into a state where it could stand on its own for the time being. Reconnecting the water supply was a relatively simple process, making their way back up to the main levels of the tunnels all they had to do was follow the pipes and reconnect the supply at each section that it had been cut of at. Finding the broken connections was the simple part, they then had to fight their way through the geth that were littered down the dark tunnel around the water supply's piping and at the end found something they did not expect. There was a human man standing on his own in the dark clutching his head in his hands and muttering nonsense. When Shepard approached the man he revealed himself to be Ian Newstead, he seemed to try to tell them something before screaming out in pain and when Shepard asked if he was ok he just laughed and mentioned something about 'invoking the master's whip'. Trying to get anything out of him ended with similar results of gibberish and Ian seemingly affected by a mental pain. Shepard tried to get him to go back with them to the colony but he refused and in the end they left him there, Ian Newstead seemed to have somehow lost his mind. The squad had then made their way back through the tunnels and on the way had came across a heavily damaged overturned vehicle, the power cells in the vehicle still seemed to work and with luck would be suitable for the colony's needs. After removing the power cells the squad had heard a loud growling from above the ridge, coming over the top was a pack of varren and at the front was what seemed to be the leader of the pack. It had growled menacingly at them before charging, the rest of the pack behind it. Shepard had taken the lead, disrupting the pack with a powerful singularity and they were thrown all about the place disorientating them. They had easily defeated them and without the ability to get in close the varren were useless with no ranged attack. With the alpha varren and its pack dead the problem hunting them had been neutralised. Davin Reynolds, the man who had asked them to take care of the alpha varren, would now be able to hunt them to supplement their supplies without the danger it had posed when it had been alive. With all they could do to help the colony completed the squad then made their way back out of the tunnels to deliver the news to the colonists.

* * *

Shepard and the squad found Fai Dan at the edge of the colony like they had before, Arcelia noticed them coming up and tapped Fai Dan on the shoulder to bring him attention to them.

"Ahh Shepard what happened down in the tunnels?" He asked with a hopeful expression.

"We disabled the transmitter, the geth attacks shouldn't be a problem anymore. We've also done what we can to help the colonists with problems they've been having keeping the site going." Shepard reported.

"I've already had reports from them about the colony's progress, its really made things much easier thank you Shepard."

"It needed to be done, don't worry." Shepard raised his hand. "There was something else however, down in the tunnels we found a man called Ian Newstead. He seemed unstable and in some serious pain, did you know he was down there?" Shepard looked over at him waiting for an answer.

"Well yes Ian is very sick, but there's nothing we can do for him now." Fai Dan fidgeted with his hands as he spoke.

"Why does he have to be done there? The geth could kill him." Shepard fixed him with a stare.

"It is best for the others if he stays down there, we can't help him now and nothing good can come of it." Fai Dan's face took a neutral expression as he spoke.

"Do you know what it is he has?" Shepard asked, starting to feel suspicious.

"No, now please I need to work." Fai Dan gestured with his hand at them. Shepard stared at him for a few seconds longer before replying.

"We will let you work then. We're going to head to ExoGeni's headquarters and see if we can stop the geth there." Fai Dan turned away from them after Shepard spoke, clearly done with them. Shepard looked to the others, seeing various expressions that mirrored his own thoughts and then nodded walking away from Fai Dan with them following.

"Something is not right there." Garrus murmured once they were a good distance away.

"He's hiding something from use, it was all over him." Nihlus stated accusingly.

"We should just smack their heads together and make them talk." Wrex suggested.

"We can worry about that later, the most pressing thing right now is ExoGeni's headquarters and the geth. We can find out what he's hiding later." Shepard said after thinking it over, the others nodded their heads in acknowledgment. They went back into the stairway and this time took the elevator to the upper levels, when it opened they were in a garage of sorts guarded by some of the colonists. Near the garage bay doors was the Mako, Shepard had radioed Joker on their way to report to Fai Dan to get it ready and up on the skyway so that they could make it to ExoGeni's headquarters. Shepard approached the doors, Wrex following him while the other two stopped just short. Garrus gulped thinking about what was to follow and would in the end rather just walk, Nihlus was probably thinking the same as him.

"Shepard, why don't I drive? I've been working with the Mako since I got onboard and know how to handle it." Garrus tried, willing Shepard to agree.

"Why that? I was just going to drive, I have done it before you know." Shepard was keeping his eyes on Garrus, a barely noticeable smirk on his lips under the Commander expression. Garrus realised he was going to make him say it if there was any hope of keeping his stomach.

"Well Shepard, your driving, it isn't your best skill and well its just that in this situation maybe….. Shepard your driving sucks and I want to make it across this skyway in one piece." Garrus folded his arms across his chest, daring Shepard to argue with him. Shepard after a moment of looking at him then started chuckling.

"Well why didn't you just say so Garrus, I'll take the guns." Shepard grinned at him before disappearing into the Mako. Garrus just stared at Shepard's back before shaking his head, a smile tugging at his face before following. Wrex and Nihlus piled in after and everyone got ready, Garrus familiarised himself with the controls and drove the Mako forward out through the garage doors onto the skyway.

* * *

The first part of the skyway was mostly uneventful, the geth tried to stop them but Garrus managed to manoeuvre around them with ease while Shepard manned the machine gun and took them down. However it was when they came to the Skyway weight station part way through when things changed. As Garrus was driving through they picked up a transmission, from what they gathered the ones broadcasting it could hear their vehicle moving along and could tell that it wasn't a geth construct. Garrus pinpointed the transmission and Shepard told him to stop the Mako when they reached its location, a stairway led down from a platform and the squad followed it down. When they reached the bottom they found a group of colonists and ExoGeni researchers holding up. They then began to converse with Juliana Baynham, a scientist and Ethan Jeong, a representative of the ExoGeni Corporation who seemed to be the ones leading the survivors. The two seemed to be complete opposites, Juliana was grateful for they're appearance while Jeong was more concerned with the reputation of the company and feared lawsuits. Juliana explained about the work done by ExoGeni on the planet, much to Jeong's displeasure but nothing significant that would explain the geth's presence. When Shepard made to leave Juliana told asked them to try and find her daughter Lizbeth, who she had got separated from when the attack happened and might be in ExoGeni's headquarters holding up like them. Shepard promised her he would try to find her and after a parting comment from Jeong to not damage the property any more than they had to, they left and re-entered the Mako.

* * *

Emerging from the other side of the weight station more geth met their approach, Garrus swerved the Mako to the side to avoid a pulse from a geth armature and Shepard fired the machine gun. When its shields failed Shepard fired the cannon and the armature was blown to pieces unable to withstand the damage. Geth troopers blocked their path but were unable to pin them down as Garrus moved the Mako back and forth to avoid them giving Shepard the time to take them out with the machine gun. Moving on they came across another group of geth along a long stretch of the highway, this time though they didn't have an armature to back them up. The Mako took a couple of hits from a geth destroyer but the shields prevented any true damage, ultimately it couldn't stand up to a direct attack from the cannon and it was destroyed. Rocket troopers were posted behind a couple of barriers that tried to take pot shots at them every now and then, Garrus drove the Mako up the side of the skyway and around the back of the barriers after the last attempt missed them. Shepard returned fire before they could adjust and the rocket troopers were finished, crumpling into the ground. The regular troopers were no match, the Mako's shielding absorbed any hits that landed and the Mako's weapons were more than a match for them. Garrus continued to drive the Mako along the skyway, not coming across any more geth until they approached ExoGeni's headquarters. The skyscraper that ExoGeni was using for their headquarters loomed above them as they approached the garage, another posting of geth blocked the path into the garage and they opened fire on the Squad. Garrus moved the Mako in front of a barrier as the geth unloaded a barrage of fire on them, Shepard fired the cannon which impacted a cluster of troopers and obliterated them. Two geth destroyers moved forward trying to get around them, Garrus reversed the Mako away from them as they approached and activated the thrusters to dodge the twin carnages thrown their way. Shepard aimed the machine gun at the closest one and fired, shredding through it's shielding in seconds and a cannon fire sent it into nothing. The other destroyer continued to move forward as Garrus moved back to stay out of its shotgun range, avoiding another carnage as he did. Shepard repeated his previous action and the other fell down as well in a pile of scrap. Emerging from the garage came a geth juggernaut flanked by geth shock troopers, the juggernaut fired a rocket at them which Garrus dodged with ease and Shepard fired the cannon which managed to decimate most of the shock troopers. The juggernaut was still standing and its shields had taken a lot of the damage, Shepard took out the shielding with the machine gun and the rounds started to eat away at the juggernaut's armour. It attempted to fire off another rocket but a blast of the cannon stopped it in its tracks, nothing more than a pile of broken pieces left of it. The few remaining shock troopers attempted to right themselves and attack but they were taken out with ease between Shepard and Garrus actions. With the geth neutralised they moved to the entrance, exiting the Mako as it wouldn't get through the gap and walked inside.

* * *

The inside of the garage was bare, piles of rubble took up most of the space and little else. There was only a few geth inside as the majority of them had been destroyed by the Mako outside trying to stop them getting in. The squad took them down with ease, the geth not being able to stand up to their combined assault. They took a look around the area, not finding much of use other than a geth armature which had been stowed away in a room giving them all a surprise and took it down after wearing it down. The only way forward seemed to be down what used to be a staircase but now was just a hole in the ground, the squad took a minute to collect themselves before moving forward.

"So I think that's at about 20 more for me." Shepard commented sliding up next to Garrus, looking forward into the ditch they were going to jump into.

"Excuse me?" Garrus asked puzzled, wondering what Shepard was on about.

"Well you know our little competition, I think all that fighting on the skyway gave me an edge don't you think?" He grinned, tilting his head to the side as he looked to Garrus.

"Come on Shepard, you can't count that." Garrus wondered how he'd let his game slip, he should have known Shepard would try that.

"You never said what we could or couldn't count. I think blowing up a handful of geth counts." He stepped back from the edge and turned fully to Garrus, trying to give a sympathetic smile that was anything but.

"Well that is true, I guess my scores higher than I thought." Garrus wasn't going to let him get away with it that easily.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well seeing as I was driving the Mako, I should get the same score and if it wasn't for my brilliant skills I doubt it would have happened otherwise or as stylishly." He brought a hand up placing it on Shepard's shoulder, failing just as much at being sympathetic.

"Oh really, should I be in awe of your of skills then?" He leaned back, folding his arms.

"That would be the normal response." He nodded seriously.

"I'll get right on that, muppet." He smiled, shaking his head.

"Muppet?" Garrus cocked his head to the side.

"Sorry, human thing, daft." He gestured. "Let's get going, can't keep the geth waiting."

"Lead the way." Shepard called the other two over and they jumped down the hole, it wasn't much of a drop just enough to make it difficult to get out the same way. Moving through the corridor it opened into another big open area, much similar to the garage above other than the fact it was closed off. There were a few doors littered about the place, hopefully one of them would lead them into the building proper. Moving over to the path at the side they noticed the corpse of a varren lying across it, it looked like it was a fresh kill. They moved forward a few steps when there was movement in the shadows and a shot rang out, flickering across Shepard's barrier as he went for his weapon. Just as quickly a curse was uttered as the being in the shadow moved forward into the light.

"Shit, sorry I thought you were geth, or maybe another varren." The speaker was a human woman, she was wearing an outfit similar to the ExoGeni scientists they had found on the skyway. She appeared to be very nervous/jumpy and considering the situation it wasn't a surprise.

"Its ok you didn't mean it, your safe now." Shepard raised his hand as he approached, trying to reassure her. "I'm Commander Shepard, this is Nihlus Kryik, Garrus Vakarian and Urdnot Wrex. Who are you?"

"My name is Lizbeth Baynham, I'm a ExoGeni scientist here."

"Lizbeth Baynham? Juliana Baynham's daughter?" He asked surprised.

"Yes, do you know of my mother?" She sounded just as surprised, taking a step forward.

"We met her at the skyway weight station along with a group of other survivors, she's fine and asked us to try and find you when we made our way here."

"Thank god she's alive, I thought I was the only one left. Can you take me to them?" Relief was evident in her voice as she made the request.

"We need to find out what the geth are after and stop them first, we can take you to them when it's safe. Why are you here? Didn't you try and run with the others?" Staying put might have saved her life however considering the casualties, Shepard thought.

"I was an idiot, I stayed behind while the other ran to back up data. Next thing I know that geth ship attached itself to the building and all the computers die. I tried to find a way out but the geth seemed to put this barrier over the entrance and exits preventing anyone from getting in, or out in my case." She berated herself.

"Do you have any clue as to what the geth are after?" Shepard didn't hold out for an answer, so far the geth's motives were a complete mystery. Lizbeth looked thoughtful for a moment before replying hesitantly.

"I don't know why the geth would be interested but they could be after the Thorian." She suggested.

"The Thorian? What is it?" Shepard was thankful to be finally getting somewhere, though he had never heard of the Thorian.

"It's a plant life form ExoGeni was studying on the planet, but they didn't find out anything that useful from it. I have no idea why the geth would want it, but it's the only thing I can think of that they might want." Lizbeth brought a hand to her forehead, massaging it.

"Stay hidden here, we will get rid of the geth dropship then we will come back for you and we can handle the Thorian." Shepard told her.

"Wait, here take this." Lizbeth walked forward, handing the commander an ID badge. "It won't get rid of the barriers, but it should open any locked doors you come across. The ship brought those barriers up and if you get rid of the ship they may fall without its continued support."

"We will be back Lizbeth, then we can take you to your mother." Nihlus told her gently.

"Good luck." Lizbeth said nodding before moving back into the darkness behind some rubble. Shepard pocket the key card and gestured to the others to move out.

* * *

The ID badge came in handy as it opened a locked door on the other side of the platform that led deeper into the actual building. They entered a small corridor that led to darkened cramped staircase, moving up it slowly to be cautious of any geth ambushes with weapons drawn. As they got further up the staircase they could hear a voice above them, seeming to be getting increasingly frustrated at not being given the right information it wanted and a synthetic voice replied apologising for the lack of assistance but without proper ID the information requested was classified. Once the squad reached the top of the staircase they saw a Krogan across from them arguing with a VI interface and failing miserably as it refused him yet again. However the VI then ruined their stealth as it then asked for the Krogan to step aside so that the other users could approach the terminal, the Krogan turned towards them and instantly when into an aggressive stance as he drew a shotgun. He went to charge them with the shotgun raised, but Shepard prevented him from getting into range with the deadly weapon with a biotic push backwards slamming the Krogan into the wall. Before the Krogan could resume his charge Shepard threw a singularity, it curved through the air before exploding into a sphere of dark energy and the gravitational pull lifted the Krogan up helpless. It was then an easy matter for the others to finish him off and once the shields were down Wrex exploded Shepard's' singularity field with a well placed warp that ended the Krogan before it had really managed to do anything other than yell. Approaching the VI it seemed to recognise Shepard as Lizbeth due to the ID badge he was carrying, conveniently it also gave them much more easy access to information than the Krogan before. Conversing with the VI revealed the sort of thing that Shepard had been dreading, the Thorian was no simple plant life like Lizbeth had suggested. It was capable of sending out spores, that when infecting the host allowed it to control them through negative reinforcement until they were conditioned to obey the Thorian's every whim. The Thorian had been discovered during ExoGeni's initial research, as it's abilities became apparent ExoGeni had stood back and studied it as it infected the colonists of Zhu's hope. It seemed the question as to the strange behaviour of the colonists had been answered, though anything quite like the Thorian was not something any of the squad had expected. Lizbeth was going to have some questions to answer once they had got rid of the geth and found a way out of the building.

A side corridor from the office room that had held the VI led on further, cabling was laid out all over the place by the geth and so the squad followed it to find the source. There were many pockets of geth patrolling the place but they were too slow to respond to the sudden barrage of gunfire, biotics and tech powers thrown at them and they fell almost instantly. Getting further into the main facility the next room was filled with geth, the place was littered with plenty of spots that provided cover and the geth weren't aware of their presence as they moved about doing whatever it was they were doing. It gave the squad the option of the first strike and chaos was the result with Shepard pushing a shockwave of biotic energy slamming into the middle of the room. The geth looked wildly for the source of the destruction as the squad spread out into the room, ducking down into cover as they prepared themselves and Nihlus threw some of his trade mark grenades to keep them preoccupied. Shepard lifted a crate and sent in flying at two geth which saw the projectile to late as it crashed into them knocking them down. As the geth turned towards Shepard the others took action, Garrus chain overloaded some geth shields before taking them out with sniper shots and Nihlus decimated another group with a shocking amount of fire from his assault rifle. A geth rocket trooper launched a rocket at Wrex who unluckily had just turned from his cover, a hasty barrier however meant he was only knocked backwards as he suffered a couple of burns and a biotic warp made the geth regret the initial decision as the shields sparked out of existence and its plating started to be eaten away. Keeping the geth group in a constant state of movement and disarray made them a lot less dangerous than they should be as the squad efficiently cut down the geth in the room only receiving minimal damage in return. Shepard focused as his biotic energy flared and the area around him took that familiar blue flame like glow, he pushed his biotics outwards as the shield expanded repelling the geth trooper assault. The geth troopers were thrown by the brute force of Shepard's shield as it expanded and crashed into them, impacting the wall and falling to the floor struggling to get up as their systems tried to repair themselves. Eventually all the geth in the room were destroyed, any stragglers finished off as the squad checked the destruction they caused in the room and Shepard's barrier faded.

Not waiting for reinforcements they moved on, working their way further up the building and following the power cables laid out all over the place. One peculiar sight they came across was wait seemed like geth praying to orbs of glowing light, which were positioned like a shrine around the ship where it was exposed to the onlookers. Storing those thoughts away to think about later they took care of the geth and moved on. The geth resistance got heavier as they approached an area where the geth ship had directly attached itself to the building and hopefully somewhere they could also force it to detach from. Nihlus approached the console terminal while the others checked around for anything else worth looking at, his talons tapped away at the console before he motioned Shepard over.

"It seems that this terminal controls the shutter bay doors, there's a fault with them that causes the doors to slam shut with enough force to cut clean through a metal beam at certain pressures." They both turned there heads to look at the claw which was attached to the building through the shuttle bay door and thought along similar lines.

"We can use that to our advantage, can you do it?" Shepard asked, looking at Nihlus's talons poised over the controls.

"This is child's play for me." Nihlus gave a small smile before turning back to the console and tapped out a few instructions, Shepard new he had been successful when a loud groaning of machinery started up and they all turned to look at the shutter bay doors. The wall rumbled slightly as the doors started to move, jolting forward in small steps before suddenly coming down on the claw with sudden force and cutting through with a bang and explosion of machinery parts. The geth ship lurched at the attack, falling backwards slowly as it tried to maintain a balance or to start its engines and after a few seconds of suspense it plummeted to the rubble of the planet below. The squad cautiously looked out at where the geth ship had been just moments before, looking down to where it fell down onto the surface of the planet.

"Good work Turian." Wrex grunted, surveying the damage with an appraising eye as Nihlus gave a curt nod.

"That should finally put an end to the geth assault." Shepard mused.

"The barriers should be down now without the geth ship to power them and we can get out of here." Garrus moved back, stretching his neck to the side.

"Good, now to deal with ExoGeni's dirty little secret." Shepard sighed, wondering what the hell they were going to go up against now. "Lets get back and find Lizbeth."

"With you Shepard." Garrus responded as the squad collected themselves and retraced their steps through the building, receiving a transmission from a frantic Joker about how the colonists of Zhu's Hope had gone crazy and attacked the Normandy along the way.

* * *

When the squad neared the site where the barrier had previously sat blocking their exit from the building they came across Lizbeth again, she had heard all the noise and when the barrier fell new they had been successful. Shepard controlled his anger at the situation as he talked with her, keeping calm as he interrogated her about what she new of the plans with the Thorian. Lizbeth quickly explained that she had been threatened to keep her silence, the actual reason she had been trapped in the building was that she had been trying to gather evidence and subsequently expose ExoGeni's doings to the right people. After hearing the story Shepard concluded that she was telling the truth and relaxed slightly knowing she had been trying to do the right thing, or she was a good actress. They then climbed back into the Mako, plus the addition of Lizbeth and made their way back along the skyway to the weight station where the other survivors were hiding. Lizbeth couldn't sit still in her seat at the prospect of being reunited with her mother and as they got closer it only became more apparent, however that changed once they were in communication range. Before Shepard spoke to confirm their presence a fight seemed to break out over the network as two voices began arguing heatedly, one of the voices shouting how ExoGeni was planning on destroying the colony and another shouted orders to contain the first speaker. Shepard unfortunately knew both speakers, the first being Lizbeth's mother Juliana and the second being Jeong. Lizbeth also realised this, her expression instantly switched to concern and anger as she yelled to stop the Mako. Garrus brought the Mako to a hasty stop as Lizbeth slammed a hand on the door release switch and jumped from the Mako, Shepard called to her to wait but Lizbeth ignored him as she raced to where the survivors were hiding. Shepard jumped out after her as the others followed behind him and when Jeong threatened Juliana Lizbeth jumped from her hiding spot and confronted Jeong, standing between him and her mother after a quick reunion. Shepard followed close behind and when Jeong saw his appearance he seemed to pale slightly, he looked close to snapping and Shepard didn't want to see anyone get hurt. What followed was a heated argument as the existence of the Thorian came to life, Lizbeth arguing that they needed to set things right for the good of the colonists and not just erase the problem from existence. Jeong got more agitated as more people joined in, both those that had known about the Thorian before hand and the ones that didn't. Juliana stood by her daughter as they gazed furiously at Jeong, Shepard giving his own input to try and end the matter and to try convince Jeong to do the right thing for once. However it didn't seem like he had payed any attention as he yelled for what was left of the security force to start taking people into custody, they themselves looked confused as to who they should be taken orders from now. After they failed to respond Jeong took out his own gun and pointed it furiously at Lizbeth, stating he would do it himself and it was only Shepard's timely intervention that disaster was averted as he wretched the gun from Jeong's hand with his biotics. The gun landed in Shepard's outstretched hand as his biotics faded once more, he looked to Jeong and simply told him to stop acting like a child. Juliana took control and ordered Jeong to be taken into custody, a unanimous decision from the survivors. As Jeong was led away to a corner under the watchful gaze of the guard Juliana and Lizbeth approached the squad, thanking them for what they had done in adverting what would have been a disaster. The conversation moved to what they could do to help the colonists and that was when Lizbeth spoke up, an effect of the Thorian control was that the colonists had a weakened immune system and Juliana suggested a nerve gas. They could modify it and the nerve gas would then be able to incapacitate the colonists without doing harm, she said that it wasn't weapon grade but in the infected colonists state it should do the job. Shepard talked it over with Nihlus and he agreed that it should do as she said, Nihlus modified the grenades he had with the nerve gas Juliana supplied before handing a couple to each of them and slipping the rest back into their holdings on his armour. Shepard told Juliana and Lizbeth to keep in touch as they prepared to leave, telling them that he would send word once the Thorian had been dealt with. The duo wished them luck as they left the survivors bunker and climbed back into the Mako, Garrus powering it up and moving off back in the direction of Zhu's Hope. They all wondered what would be waiting for them now they had uncovered the truth.

* * *

Driving back to Zhu's Hope was uneventful, other than more geth that had decided to plant themselves in their way and were subsequently blown to pieces. Approaching the garage bay doors for Zhu's Hope was when that changed as they looking at the organic mass that lay in their way. As Garrus pulled the Mako to a halt the organic mass in front of them shifted into an upright position, now that they could see it properly it resembled something vaguely humanoid in shape with claws and a twisted face with a gaping hole for a mouth.

"What the hell is that?" Garrus spoke in shock, the creature made some sort of noise between a groan and a screech before charging the Mako. Shepard onlined the machine gun and before the thing had moved more than a few paces it had been torn to shreds by the Mako's gun. The squad climbed out of the Mako and gathered around what was left of the creature.

"I'm guessing that is the Thorian's doing." Shepard said as they looked down at the remains.

"Well we haven't got much else to go on right now." Nihlus added in, holding a hand under his chin as he thought.

"What else do you think its capable of doing?" Garrus asked, receiving a shrug from Shepard as Wrex cut in.

"What does it matter? The important thing now is that they can be killed easy enough." Wrex kicked the organic mess with an armoured foot as he finished.

"Wrex is right about that right now the important thing is stopping the Thorian, we can wonder about its biology later." Shepard turned away from the mess to the garage doors. "We don't shoot any of the colonists, they can't help what they're doing so were going to subdue them only." Shepard turned to look at them and gave each of them a look that meant trouble if they did any different, though it was really meant for the more violent Wrex. "These Thorian creatures are all up for grabs though." As he finished he pulled out his pistol, making sure it was in working order as the others confirmed his instructions. They readied themselves as Shepard moved over to the garage door controls and hit the open button.

As the door raised shouts could be heard from inside as the elevator guards opened fire on the doorway. More of the Thorian creatures became aware as the door fully opened, uncurling themselves and charging the group. Shepard threw his arm out and sent a singularity into the charging enemies, it ripped into existence in the middle of the group and stopped them dead in their tracks as it pulled them into the air. As the creatures flailed helplessly Shepard pushed his palm forward collecting biotic energy there and sent it outwards in a shockwave at the suspended group, when it connected with the singularity field everything exploded ripping apart the Thorian creatures as they were thrown all over the place. The ones left were quickly finished off between him and Garrus as Wrex complained about leaving some for him in an amused tone. Their attention turned to the colonist guards who were still firing, they posed no danger as the squad had yet to actually enter the garage and confront them. Nihlus took cover by the wall and waited for a lull in the fire, when there was a pause he quickly turned his body into the garage and threw the modified grenades in the colonist's direction. When the grenade impacted the opposite wall Nihlus detonated the grenade sending the guards sprawling to the ground unconscious as the nerve gas proved effective. The squad then followed Nihlus inside to the elevator doors as Shepard checked the two guards to make sure they were ok. Once he had confirmed their pulse the group moved into the elevator and Wrex hit the activation button.

* * *

Moving through the colony was for the most part smooth, Nihlus would take care of the colonists with the modified grenades as the others took care of the Thorian creatures that would try to swarm their position, using their own modified grenades when they could to help Nihlus subdue the colonists without hurting them. Shepard kept the Thorian creatures at bay by erecting barriers as Garrus and Wrex systematically took them out with their sniper rifle and shotgun respectively. They eventually made their way into the centre of the colony where Lizbeth had told them lay the hidden entrance into the Thorian's lair, approaching the controls for the crane to move the freighter. As Garrus moved forward to the controls Fai Dan appeared from the shadows, he was obviously struggling with himself as he moved forward in jerky movements and spoke to them in pieces about the wants of the Thorian. He raised a pistol at them as Shepard prepared to disarm him and in a burst of defiance Fai Dan shouted out his rejection of the Thorian, shooting himself in the head before Shepard could move. It was clear as Shepard moved forward and looked down at the body that Fai Dan was dead, the side of his head was a mess from where the shot had impacted as he lay there deathly still. Shepard sighed as he turned away to look at Garrus.

"Do it." He said, Garrus nodded and moved forward to the controls again. Within a few moments he had the crane active as it sputtered into life, turning to grasp part of the freighter and raising it to expose a stairway that led down into the dark.

"I guess that's it then." Shepard looked down into the darkness revealed to them.

"Who knew a plant could cause all this." Garrus said as he rejoined them, gesturing around to the colony surrounding them.

"I have never heard of a plant that could do anything remotely similar to this." Nihlus looked up from checking his equipment at Garrus's words. "It truly is one of a kind." He added with a thoughtful look.

"Humph, it's still just a plant lets be rid of the thing already." Wrex spoke up, not really caring about the plants abilities other than its ability to die. Shepard shook his head with a small smile, Wrex was right, he could be fascinated later after they had freed the colonists from the Thorian's control.

"Be on your guard, who knows what we will find down there." He told them as they gathered about him.

"Ready." They all confirmed, Shepard turned back to the darkened stairs as he held his pistol in hand and moved forward.

* * *

The darkness didn't last long as they progressed down the steps, the stairway eventually began to open up and light began to stream through cracks in places along the walls. Shepard cautiously moved forward as they reached the bottom of the stairway, the area before them opening up into a great cavern. The place surrounding them was in just as much of a ruin as everything they had seen so far, walls caved in and rubble laying all about the place. Shepard could see some sort of substance attached to various walls that seemed organic in nature, most likely something to do with the Thorian and Shepard thought it best to stay well away from it. As they walked forward Garrus began talking.

"The Thorian is only a plant, how hard can it be now we've gotten past its defences." He commented.

"Knowing my luck it isn't going to be that easy." Shepard replied, turning to look at Garrus over his shoulder pointing to himself.

"It's still just a plant." He shrugged as the squad continued to move forward. Their feet carried them to the centre of the cavern and as they looked up everyone came to a standstill in shock.

"That's a plant?" Garrus exclaimed.

"Just once I wish I could be proven wrong." Shepard murmured as they got their first look at the Thorian. It hung the air before them, held up by many thick tendrils of whatever made up the Thorian and its body. Slime oozed from various pores in the giant organic twisting mass in front of them, what seemed to be tendrils hung near the front as they twitched and the Thorian seemed to be attempting to move. The Thorian then convulsed, the tendrils at the front going into a fury of activity as they pulled up and a body appeared among them. The body slid through the tentacles and fell to the platform before the Thorian, then amazingly it stood up. The body revealed itself to be an Asari, although she had a strange green colour to her skin than the blue one would expect and opened her mouth to speak.

"I speak for the old growth, or what you refer to as the Thorian." She spoke in a monotone, with a blank expression.

"Who are you?" Nihlus asked.

"I am unimportant meat bag, every step you take here is a transgression, and you should be in awe of my presence." She spoke in the same voice as before as the squad looked uneasy.

"Why does Saren want you dead?" Shepard asked her.

"That flesh bag came here to make a deal, in exchange for my knowledge of old times he offered me the one standing before you. Then he had the audacity to order his minions to attempt and kill me!" At the last sentence the expression on the Asari changed to one of rage and her voice changed from the monotone into one of anger. Shepard looked to the Thorian, wondering what knowledge it had that Saren had so desperately wanted.

"What knowledge was that?" He asked.

"…..Old times." Came the short reply, the Thorian's anger at the memory evidently still on its mind.

"What of the colonists of Zhu's Hope? The geth attack has been stopped, you don't need them anymore." Shepard clearly wasn't going to get anymore out of it about the dealings with Saren but he wouldn't give up on the colonists.

"They are useful to me for more than just defence, I shall keep them flesh bag."

"You can't just decide that." Shepard glared at the Asari mouthpiece before switching his gaze to the actual body of the Thorian.

"Enough flesh bags, I have had enough with your meaningless words and have no interest with making deals with those that scurry." The Asari before them stopped speaking before moving forwards, reaching behind her back the Asari pulled out a shotgun. Shepard raised his hands, his biotics flaring instinctively as a biotic pulse threw the Asari backwards and over the edge of the platform to the depths below. The Thorian gave a shuddering screech, the tentacles whipping about angrily as the entire structure shook and noise could be heard coming from around them.

"That went well." Garrus quipped as he drew his assault rifle, the others also preparing themselves for what they were about to face.

"Yeah well you try being diplomatic and successful around an ancient sentient plant that sees us as 'flesh bags." Shepard air quoted the last bit as he drew his pistol, raising an eyebrow at Garrus who just smirked back at him.

"Who cares." Wrex interrupted the pair. "The important thing is we get to see some carnage and not talk about our problems like some Asari." He grinned at Shepard, making an unnecessary but elaborate show of his shotgun as he readied it.

"Here come more of those Thorian creatures." Nihlus warned them, coming from the stairway that went around the outside of the Thorian's Lair were a stream of the vaguely humanoid shaped things.

"Let's clear them out." Shepard said as he focused on prepared himself for the onslaught. The others moved into position Wrex took up the front as his shotgun efficiently took down one after the other, Nihlus and Garrus mowing them down with assault rifles. Shepard stayed behind taking out the creatures with his pistol, saving his biotics for when they swarmed to push them back and give them breathing space.

When the attack subsided they moved to the stairway where they came from looking up to see nothing else approaching, Shepard looked back to the Thorian wondering what they could do to kill it. The main body of the Thorian was supported in the middle of the cavernous room, above the hole that when inspected went on past his sight range and would surely cause death if the Thorian fell. Hanging above the stairway was one of the supporting arms of the Thorian, attached to the wall seemed to be some form of neural node which pulsed as Shepard looked at it and he wondered what would happen if they destroyed it. After suggesting as such to the rest of the squad they agreed that they should at least try it and so they unleashed their weaponry into the node. After a few seconds of fire the neural node exploded, sending whatever substance made it up flying everywhere and the room shuck again as the Thorian seemed to screech in pain. Confirming what Shepard hoped to be true they continued on looking for more nodes to destroy, if they destroyed enough of them it may be enough to finish the Thorian off for good. More Thorian creatures met them on the next level and Shepard moved forward as he weaved his arms about, biotics coming to life as he erecting a biotic barrier about them. The Thorian creatures had numbers but no ranged capabilities, so all that Shepard had to do was keep them out of reach and they were helpless. As the creatures began to fall a powerful biotic attack slammed the shield surprising Shepard, coming through the doorway was the Asari the Thorian had used to speak to them before with shotgun drawn. The Asari's expression remained blank as she attacked them with full force, it became clear that although she looked the same she wasn't the one who had spoken to them before and Shepard wondered if the Thorian had somehow recreated her. Wrex dealt with her, dwindling down her own personal barrier with his own biotics and taking her out with a precise blast from his own shotgun. Nihlus and Garrus focused on the rest of the Thorian creatures as Shepard maintained the barrier leading a hand here or there with pistol shots as they fell down before them. After the last fell Shepard let the barrier drop and they moved on, they eventually came across another node which received the same treatment as the one previous. The Thorian screeched in pain again, spasming for a few seconds before it stilled after the destruction of the node. The squad continued on in a similar manner, the destruction of the node would cause the Thorian to get angry and send more of the creatures at them, they would take care of them before moving on eventually finding another node which would cause the Thorian pain and then anger when destroyed. The screeches and spasm seemed to get louder and lasted longer the more nodes they destroyed which was a good sign, the Asari popped up again every now and then to attack them with the Thorian creatures but otherwise she didn't represent much of a danger. The squad eventually saw themselves near the top of the cavernous room, as far as they could tell there was only one more node left as they stood before it. A nod from Shepard had them destroying it and as with the others it exploded in a mess of the Thorian's organic matter. Nothing happened for a few seconds until the room shuck like nothing it had done before, Shepard grasped a wall for support as the others did the same and turned to regard the Thorian. It began screeching continually as it swung around widely in what Shepard would think to be panic, various snapping sounds could be heard as the Thorian lurched suddenly and the others realised what was happening. The Thorian dropped suddenly again, lower to the gap in the floor before whatever was still supporting it gave away and it fell truly down into the depths of the building. The screeching could still be heard as the Thorian fell, crashing into the walls as it did until the noise died away into the nothingness the Thorian had disappeared into.

The squad regained their balance as the shaking subsided, looking around to make sure nothing was about to collapse on them. Their attention was drawn to one corner of the room as a pod presumingly created by the Thorian start to move and wiggle. The pod then began to split open and a figure fell out of it onto the floor, a closer look revealed a more traditionally coloured Asari and as she stirred the question of whether she was alive was answered. As she regained conscious and struggled to her feet Shepard was met with the same face as the one they had fought before, only the skin colour had changed. The Asari introduced herself as Shiala, someone who had served Matriarch Benezia and consequently Saren. She explained about their mission to them, how they had sought out the Thorian for the knowledge it contained, the cipher. Shiala explained how the cipher was an essence, it conveyed the Protheans history, culture, their entire existence and basically taught her to think like a Prothean. Only with this knowledge would anyone be able to understand the message left behind by the beacon, a message meant for Prothean minds. Shepard asked her if there was any way of transferring the cipher and she agreed it was possible, doing the same as she did with Saren. She got Shepard to close his eyes as the others watched wearily for any wrongdoings on her part. After speaking with Shepard to relax she merged her mind with his and transferred the knowledge of the cipher into him. Shepard was immediately assaulted by multiple images and emotions, all blurring by to quickly for him to understand until they slowed down and a familiar scene came before him. The images from the beacon played out again, still distorted from before and any new understanding of them was lost to his mind as they faded again from his view. Shepard opened his eyes to see the ceiling of the Thorian's Lair come into focus, realising that had some point he had fallen down from the cipher transfer. Garrus was there a second later and knelt beside Shepard, he took his chin in his hand and moved his head to look directly at him. Garrus's eyes were piercing as he looked him over for any damage.

"Are you ok?" He said, something sounding like worry in his flanging voice.

"Yeah I'm fine, just know I'm going to end up with a massive headache later." Shepard gave him a smile to reassure him. Garrus's expression relaxed as he let out a breath, mandibles loosening as he let his hand drop and reoffered it to help him up. Shepard took it with his own and Garrus hoisted him back up onto his feet.

"Thanks Garrus." Shepard held his hand for a few seconds longer than necessary enjoying the simple contact before he realised what he was doing and he pulled his hand away embarrassed.

"Anytime." Garrus responded, chuckling at Shepard's behaviour which only made him more embarrassed. Shepard turned to Shiala to try and avoid it and hopefully maintained the 'Commander' expression.

"Thank you Shiala." He said truthfully.

"It was the least I could do after all the trouble I caused." She said regretfully.

"What will you do now?" Shepard asked to change the subject.

"I will stay here and help the colonists in any way I can, after everything they have been through they deserve nothing less." Shiala spoke with a determined expression.

"Then let's get out of here together."

"Lets." Shiala replied, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards in a small smile. The squad and Shiala made their way to the exit, Shepard kept a close eye on her as she seemed a little unsteady on her feet after so long being under the Thorian's control, not noticing Garrus was doing the exact same thing to him.

* * *

After the Squad and Shiala left the Thorian's Lair Shepard contacted Juliana and told them what had happened with the Thorian. She sounded greatly relieved and told Shepard they would be there as quick as they could. After Shepard cut the communications they got to rounding up the unconscious colonists, the survivors from the Skyway bunker joining them soon after. The colonists came round soon after and were checked over by the few medical staff present. Juliana and Lizbeth talked to them, thanking them for everything they had done and saving so many people. Arcelia also requested a word and Shepard was surprised to hear her apologise. She told him that she was sorry for the way she treated them which had nothing to do with the Thorian control and that she was wrong about Shepard. After Shepard had a few words with Shiala and they were assured that the colony didn't need their help anymore the squad made their way back to the Normandy.

* * *

**AN: ****I told you. What a long chapter, I surprised myself with this one and I'm happy to finally finish it. I started this ages ago and was probably just under half way through when I realised that assignments should probably take priority and the story on the back burner, not the other way round. Then I finished that assignment and well here we are ^^. I think the chapter went well, included some nice Garrus/Shepard moments I think as well so definitely happy with that. Something I should probably tell you is I forgot Nihlus was alive :O, yep completely and utterly forgot about that lol. Thankfully I had only done a little bit of the chapter at that point, it was fairly easy to go back and just add him back in. Other than the fact he is alive I've not done anything with it so I'll try and think of ways to make him more significant or just write more of him (Yeah, just as I wrote that I though of making that happen by making some Nihlus/Shepard XD, bad writer, bad). On a personal note, I have Persona 4 and it is awesome! Yeah thought I'd share that and I really need to stop writing now and go cook something. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time. **

**Next Chapter: Garrus's Request.**


	7. Chapter 7: Garrus's Request

**Mass Effect 1: It Begins**

**Chapter 7: Garrus's Request**

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**AN: ****Disclaimer – I don't own Bioware or Mass Effect unfortunately, so while I go cry in a corner about that you can read this chapter. Enjoy ^^.**

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After Shepard and the others got back on the ship he called the rest of the squad members to the Comm Room for a debriefing. The ones that hadn't gone with Shepard after the geth were shocked to learn of the Thorian's existence, Shepard himself would have found it hard to believe if he hadn't been there. While Liara was fascinated to learn of the Thorian the others in the room, particularly Kaidan and Ashley, were just glad it was gone after learning what it had been able to do. When Shepard asked their opinion they all agreed it had been the right thing to do, as did Liara although she was disappointed they wouldn't be able to learn anything from it. Once Shepard explained about the cipher that Shiala had given him, Liara if anything seemed to pay even more attention than she already was and after Shepard explained that nothing had really changed yet for him Liara had a suggestion. Liara proposed to meld minds with him, explaining that with her knowledge of the Protheans she may be able to held him sort through the blurry vision and help him process it better. Shepard agreed that it was worth a shot in trying to figure it out and rose from him seat to meet Liara in the middle of the circle of chairs. Liara told him to close his eyes and relax him mind, with the words 'embrace eternity' their consciousness joined as the black of Liara's pupils expanded to cover her entire eye. The broken vision played through Shepard's mind again, the images blurring into each other as soon as they had unfolded before him and he felt a slight pressure in his head. It ended as soon as it had begun, Shepard was snapped back to the present as whatever connection he had with Liara was broken and as Shepard opened his eyes he saw her stumble back a step. Liara was speechless for a moment as she processed what she had seen her eyes focused on an empty chair as she thought. Once she had gathered herself she explained what the vision had felt like to her and explained what Shepard hoped wasn't true, that the information relayed by the beacon was incomplete. Liara went on to say that without the complete information she feared that they would never be able to understand what the vision meant and therefore some sort of direction into what Saren was trying to do. Liara went of to say more before she swayed on her feet, bringing a hand to her forehead for a moment. Shepard stepped towards her voicing his concern but she assured him that she was fine, saying that see was just exhausted from the joining. Shepard told her that she should go to the med bay and lay down, possibly getting Dr Chakwas to look at her when she did. Liara agreed and with that Shepard ended the meeting, feeling his own headache coming on as he massaged his own forehead as Nihlus came to stand by him. As the others were leaving Shepard caught sight of Garrus giving him a concerned look, Shepard gave him a tight smile in reassurance and made a mental note to go speak with him later as he left. Nihlus voiced a similar concern which he waved off as nothing, Nihlus thankfully then dropped it and explained that they should report in person to the Council about what happened on Feros. Shepard nodded in agreement going over to the controls and opened up the channel, making the request to speak with the Council. In the end they didn't have to wait long as Shepard was given access and the Council's holograms filled the space.

"Shepard we've read your forwarded report on Feros." Councillor Sparatus started abruptly, looking up from a datapad which Shepard guessed was said report.

"We had some questions regarding your handling of this Thorian creature." Councillor Tevos said, pursing her lips as she ended her sentence.

"Was the utter destruction of the Thorian necessary? To think its age dated during the time of the Protheans the knowledge we could have learned from it would have been valuable." Councillor Valern stared Shepard down from under the hood, silently demanding an explanation.

"Councillors the Thorian's destruction was not something I did lightly, but there was no alternative and it refused to listen to reason." Shepard looked each Councillor in the eye as he spoke to covey his seriousness.

"If I may Councillors, Shepard is right. The Thorian would not listen to us and proved to be a great danger. As you have read in the reports the Thorian could control any individual that came into contact with the spores it produced and would use them to do anything it wanted. I have no doubt it would try to take control of the Citadel Council itself if it could to further its own ends." Nihlus spoke with reason, knowing that the Council wouldn't follow their words blindly. It took a moment as the Council looked between one another, theirs eyes conveying an entire conversation before Sparatus spoke again.

"Your judgement is sound, I'm sure if I had been in your position the outcome would have been the same." Councillor Sparatus admitted before turning to eye Shepard.

"You seem to have a great ability to prove me wrong Shepard, I trust your judgement aswell." Shepard eyes widened at the admission, never expecting to hear the Turian Councillor say that.

"Thank you Councillor." He replied politely.

"Although my passions may lie with diplomacy and compromise, I can see your reasoning and cannot fault you for it." Councillor Tevos hard expression relaxed slightly as she spoke, slipping back into her calm mask.

"On another note we have had the best scientists we could find looking into the remains of the beacon, unfortunately they haven't found anything and they feel that they won't in the future either. We will keep you updated on any progress regardless." Councillor Valern spoke next, disappointment in his voice at the total loss of the beacon.

"Shepard we have had reports of Matriarch Benezia being spotted arriving on Noveria, although unclear as of yet we don't believe she has left the planet." Councillor Tevos addressed them. "If you could find her we may be able to get some answers."

"Of course Councillor, we shall set a course for Noveria and stop her before she disappears again." Shepard responded nodding towards the Asari Councillor who gave a tip of her head in return.

"We shall await your next report." Councillor Sparatus reached forward to his terminal as did the others and terminated the connection, the holograms fading away as they did.

"That went better than expected." Shepard remarked, turning towards Nihlus as they moved away from the comm terminal.

Nihlus gave a small rumble like chuckle at Shepard's words before turning towards him. "They may appear to be frustrating, but they were elected as representatives of their species for a reason."

"I wish all politicians were like that." Shepard smiled, shaking his head at a certain human ambassador he knew.

"Don't we all." Nihlus smiled slightly. "You're doing well Shepard, you make a good Spectre."

"Thanks." Shepard scratched the back of his head slightly embarrassed, he always felt awkward when he was complemented. Nihlus moved passed Shepard towards the door before Shepard called out to him, Nihlus turned slightly tilting his head to look at Shepard.

"Lets talk when your free, with everything going on you need to take a break sometimes." He suggested.

"Thank you Shepard, I'll take you up on that." Nihlus gave another small smile to Shepard who responded in kind before he walked out the door completely. Shepard raised a hand to his forehead again as the headache came on again and he sat in one of the free chairs.

* * *

Shepard let his head fall against the back of the elevator as he made his way down to the cargo bay, silently cursing Joker as he did. Shepard had gone to Dr Chakwas office to check on Liara, Liara had assured him that she was fine and was surprised at his concern. Liara had then gone on to say that she had looked at Shepard's background, having been fascinated by Shepard's interaction with the beacon. There must have been something in the way Shepard asked her about it because her voice changed from one of excitement and to one of horror as she wrung her hands together. Liara had been convinced that she had committed some sort of faux pas in regards to human behaviour and started a rushed apology. Shepard had to calm her down before he could explain that it was fine and that she really didn't need to be worried about being curious. If she had any questions she could just ask him and if for some reason he didn't want to answer he would tell her so. Liara was embarrassed and relieved, she told him that she had little experience with interactions with humans and was always worried about doing something foolish. Shepard told her with a gentle smile to not to try so hard and just relax, that it would be much easier that way. Liara thanked him before he turned and left, briefly talking to Dr Chakwas on his way out. When he left the med bay he saw Ashley reading a datapad while sitting at the tables in the middle of the crew deck. He made his way over to her and asked if she had any time to talk, Ashley had turned to look at him saying she wasn't really doing anything and gestured to the seat across from her. She briefly grilled him about the mission and then their conversation turned more personal, Shepard found out alittle about her family and the fact that she was religious. In turn she asked him some questions about his biotics, although not one herself she was intrigued by the subject and wanted to know more. She wisely didn't ask about his childhood as it was one of the few subjects that Shepard refused to talk about with anyone. It was when Shepard got up to leave that his frustration at Joker started as Ashley said that is had been nice talking to him as two people instead of Commander and Gunnery Chief. He had been about to say a similar thing when she turned her eyes away from him and he swore that she had a faint blush on her cheek. After that he had said his goodbye and made his way to the elevator which led to his current situation.

If Joker hadn't told Shepard about Ashley then he wouldn't have thought anything of their conversation, but it was too late for that now. It seemed everytime that he talked to her now that he would find something in her words or behaviour to suggest her interest like Joker said. Shepard didn't want to lead anybody on, he truly did just like to get to know the crew more personally which he prayed was all Ashley thought. At the end of the day fraternisation was against Alliance policy so she shouldn't expect anything. The elevator slowed down as it got to the cargo bay and Shepard sighed, that was the end of it he hoped. As the doors opened he stepped out and his eyes were drawn over to the Mako, as usual Garrus stood beside it working at something on a small terminal. Although the fraternisation policy worked with him in regards to Ashley, it went against him in another way as he grinned and shook his head to get rid of that train of thought as he walked over to Wrex.

Wrex greeted Shepard with his usual grunted 'Shepard', tilting his head to look at him as he approached. As per the norm their conversation didn't last that long, though Wrex told him alittle about his past and Shepard got some form of a rumble/chuckle out of him so he considered that a success. When Wrex made it clear that he was done Shepard said his goodbye and walked over the open area to the Mako. As Shepard made his way over Garrus turned to look at him, flicking a talon over a couple of buttons before turning his attention to him.

"Hey Garrus, are you busy?" Shepard asked, looking at the terminal behind him.

"Nothing important, just routine maintenance stuff." He shrugged.

"Well the Mako wasn't trashed this time, your welcome." Shepard stepped over to the Mako, leaning on its side as he grinned at Garrus.

"Who was driving this time?" Garrus responded, mandibles twitching as he gave the Turian version of a smirk.

"Well, if it wasn't for my work on the turret you would have had much harder time." He fired back.

"And for that I thank you." Garrus replied, hand coming up to rest on his chest. Shepard laughed at the fake sincerity, as Garrus cocked his head to the side as he observed him.

"Feeling any better?

"I'm fine." Shepard replied just a bit too quickly, Garrus just raised a brow ridge at him.

"What?" Shepard huffed, Garrus just continued to look at him.

"Alright I have a slight headache, can we move on now?"

"Sure." Garrus grinned. "Want to talk about how I beat your ass at our little wager?"

"Excuse me, I don't think so. I took out all those geth on the Skyline with the turret remember?" Shepard bristled as he responded, not letting Garrus get away with it that easy.

"Remember after we just got to the ExoGeni Headquarters? You agreed to drop all the geth from the skyway." Garrus wiggled a finger in his direction. Shepard opened his mouth to respond before his brain caught up with him, he'd forgot that.

"The mission is too important for silly games and competitions Garrus, you should know better than that." Shepard sniffed, turning his head away from Garrus haughtily.

"uh hu, so if it had been the other way around and you had won our little competition you'd still be saying the same thing? Garrus folded his arms and he leaned his weight to one sight as he observed Shepard's reaction.

"Of course I would."

"Strangely I don't believe you Shepard." He deadpanned before his face split into a grin.

"Wonder what made you think that." Shepard replied, turning to face Garrus a small smile also creeping onto his face. The two of them continued to talk about various things such as the mission and the rest of the crew, but when Shepard was about to leave Garrus's tone took a more serious note. Garrus then told Shepard about Dr. Saleon, a Salarian geneticist who was at the centre of a black market trade in cloned body parts a few years back. Garrus and his co-workers eventually uncovered his work but Dr. Saleon knew they were on to him and fled, escaping on his ship with hostages. Garrus wanted the Citadel defence force to shoot Dr. Saleon down but C-Sec overrode his order , they were worried about the hostages and civilian casualties that might of occurred from blowing up the ship so close to the station. As Garrus told his story he got more angry and bitter at Dr. Saleon's escape, Shepard always the diplomat, tried to point out C-Sec's point of view of the situation which Garrus grudgingly admitted. As Shepard had picked up before, Garrus went on to say he was just angry that the bastard had escaped and was still doing this to other innocent people out there. In time Garrus found out that he had changed his name to Dr R. Heart and that he had a new ship named the MSV Fedele, he had managed to get the transponder frequency for his ship but he couldn't convince anyone to check it out. Shepard offered to help, if he gave him the coordinates they'd see what they could do. Garrus was grateful for Shepard's help, he had hoped that Shepard would but he didn't want to distract anyone from the main mission if they didn't have the time. Shepard cut him off, saying that he wouldn't have offered if he didn't mean it and he wanted to help him. Garrus thanked him again as Shepard waved him off leaving Garrus to his work on the Mako.

* * *

"Oh Commander, um, is something the matter?" Tali spoke nervously as Shepard approached her, a hand unconsciously coming up to rub the back of her neck.

After speaking with Garrus Shepard decided to drop in on the engineering crew to see how they were getting on and to check on Tali since they had last talked to each other. He had decided to take Tali with him when they went after Dr Saleon so he thought he would get an update on her while he was at it.

"Were heading to the Herschel system to locate a criminal named Dr. Saleon aboard the MSV Fedele, he sold organs on the black market and from what I've been told it was rather disturbing so we're going to bring him in."

"Understood Commander." Tali gave a slight jerky nod as she stood rigidly.

"Tali, relax you don't have to be so nervous and on guard." Shepard smiled gently, slightly amused. "I want you to feel comfortable aboard the Normandy, just be yourself and if you have any questions or problems then you can come to me about it." He leaned back against the pillar, gesturing to the engineering deck of the Normandy around them with a hand. Beneath the mask Tali's eye widened slightly before her posture suddenly became much more relaxed.

"Thank you Commander." Shepard could hear the happiness evident in her tone, then she tilted her head to the side as she regarded the commander. "Commander, why do you treat me as you do? Just about everyone else in the galaxy looks upon the Quarian race as a pack of liars and thieves, not someone to trust with the engine of a very expensive prototype ship." As Tali finished one hand was resting on her hip as she continued to gaze curiously at Shepard.

Shepard merely shrugged at her words. "Well the majority of people are idiots, to judge every individual Quarian on the past mistakes of a select few and to just assume they're all the same is close minded and wrong. Regardless of who you are, everyone should be judged fairly until you give them a reason not to." He huffed, his facial expression getting rather animated as he spoke until he gave Tali a sheepish smile. "Didn't mean to get so righteous there, I trust you Tali, that's what your own actions have shown me."

"People like you Commander are so rare, thank you." Tali ended the conversation shortly after, turning back to the console she was looking at as other engineer came over to her and started asking questions about an algorithm.

* * *

Shepard left the cockpit after speaking with Joker about the new coordinates to the MSV Fedele. It seemed Joker stuck his foot in his own mouth, again. He had gone to the cockpit and given Joker the new coordinates, checking in with him to see how he was doing when he got all worked up. Apparently he thought that Shepard wanted to know whether his 'condition' was hindering his work and that he deserved to be on the Normandy because he was the best dam pilot in the Alliance navy, not some pity gesture. After Shepard's essentially 'What the fuck' face and him stating that he had no idea what Joker was on about, the pilot then promptly went bright red as it dawned on him that Shepard truly didn't know. Joker then sighed and went on to explain Vrolik syndrome, how his bones were extremely brittle even with modern medicine and that all he had to do was fall over to break several bones. Despite that it still made him no less of a pilot he stated as he looked up at Shepard with determination to which he agreed, as far as Shepard saw it he had already proven himself and as a pilot he didn't really need to be able to run a marathon or throw a Krogan over his shoulder.

Leaving Joker to his embarrassment Shepard made his way to Nihlus's Office, stopping by to have that chat he suggested before in the mission debriefing. Pressing the door panel Shepard entered the room to find Nihlus sitting at a desk, looking over several datapads while parts of a dismantled assault rifle lay to the side. As with every Turian in the military he was still in his armour, Shepard wondered about the fascination that they seemed to have with spending every waking moment in it that they could and before addressing Nihlus he made sure to wipe the growing smile from his face who looked up as he knocked on the side of the door.

"Nihlus, have you got a minute?"

"Of course Shepard, I apologise for this mess." Nihlus gestured to the state of his desk.

"My quarters have been worse." He waved off his words as he sat in the chair in front of the desk.

"Feeling better?" He asked, giving Shepard that no nonsense look when he started to argue that he was fine again.

"I took some painkillers I'll be ok later. How is it you and Garrus both wouldn't let that go." Shepard huffed.

"Well Turians in general are good at reading people, though as part of my Spectre training I learned about different expressions and the body language of multiple species so that in a hostile situation I may be more aware of how things may unfold." Nihlus explained, before smiling and indicating Shepard with one hand. "From what I know of you whenever you feel unwell you play it off, even when it's obvious."

"You are too good at that." Shepard remarked, returning the smile.

"It's what I do. So Mind controlling plant, weren't expecting that one." Nihlus leaned back, linking his hands together.

"No, definitely was no expecting that one. Thank you for standing up for my report on all that cracked off on Feros earlier." Shepard spoke sincerely.

"I meant what I said and if I disagree with you then I'll tell you so." He finished with a smirk.

"Duly noted." Shepard agreed before continuing. "We'll be making a detour before Noveria, to a ship in the Herschel system called the MSV Fedele."

"What for?" Nihlus asked.

"Have you heard of a Dr. Saleon?"

"A little, he was involved in something to do with black market organ trading on the Citadel right?" Nihlus tapped his jaw as he thought.

"Yeah just as they were about to corner him he got away with hostages, a contact of Garrus managed to track him down to this new ship under a new name 'Dr Heart'. It sounded pretty horrendous what he did to these people and were going to bring him in." He finished resolved.

"Fair enough, as long as this doesn't detract from the main mission and stopping Saren Shepard." He pointed out.

"The co-ordinates aren't that far out of the way from Noveria and we won't have to take him all the way back to the Citadel but pass him along to a patrolling military ship. I understand that we can't get distracted from pursing Saren, but if we can do some good along the way then I'll take the opportunity." Shepard stared across at Nihlus waiting for his response, who after a few seconds nodded his head in acceptance.

"You have a good attitude Shepard, let's take care of the Salarian." Nihlus smiled, Shepard returning the gesture. "So what's going on with you and the Gunnery Chief Williams?"

"Not you too." Shepard groaned rolling his eyes as Nihlus grinned.

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**AN: ****Please please don't kill me in holy fire I'm sooooo sorry :(. I have been so busy these last few months its ridiculous, it seems like once you hit term 3 they pile a billion assignments on you at once and I'm someone who is really organised when it comes to my Uni work. So I can only imagine what the people that were more 'relaxed' about it were feeling when they got back from the Easter break and realised all the work they had to do. So between Uni work and just general life I didn't really feel like sitting down in the evening and writing for a few hours. However I'm finished for the summer now and have almost 4 months off before my final year starts, so plenty of time for writing ^^. I had partly written this chapter a while ago so now I'm back I've written the rest of it over the last few days. So don't worry the next update will be much much quicker and I'll atleast start it tomorrow, also the next chapter won't be a super long chapter like Feros so that will make it quicker coming to. On a relatively unimportant note the new trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII looks epic, I know a lot of people seem to hate the Final Fantasy XIII games and that's fine, but it was Final Fantasy XIII that made me fall in love with the series (Since then I have also got a couple of DS remakes of the early Final Fantasies). Lightning is on my top ten list of favourite video game characters, not number 1 obviously that spot is Garrus's :3, and I love the plot and everything else about that game including the awesome eidolon summons^^. So I'll see you all next time :).**

**Next Chapter: Dr. Saleon's Downfall. **


	8. Chapter 8: Dr Saleon's Downfall

**Mass Effect 1: It Begins**

**Chapter 8: Dr. Saleon's Downfall**

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**AN: ****I don't own the rights to Mass Effect, they belong to Bioware. Enjoy the next chapter guys and girls.**

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The MSV Fedele wasn't hard to find, after the Normandy got to the Herschel system it didn't take long to locate the ship. From a distance nothing seemed to be off about the ship, it actually looked rather simple, though nobody knew what a crazy scientist's ship was suppost to look like. According to the remote scans a number of the ships systems were offline, other than the life support and a couple of other smaller systems the ship was essentially dead. From the outside there appeared to be no visible damage so whatever caused the ship systems to go down must have been internal, not taking any chances the squad went in on guard.

Once the Normandy docked with the MSV Fedele Shepard and the squad cautiously boarded the ship weapons drawn, Shepard and Nihlus first with Tali and Garrus bringing up the rear. It was clear once they were on the ship that their earlier assumptions had been correct, there was internal damage to the ship, a lot of it. Nothing seemed to be its place with broken objects tossed all over the room like a twister had raged through it, tables and chair lay broken while crates haphazardly lay across the corridor on their sides, spilling their contents out onto the floor. Taking a closer look at the contents of the crates revelled surgical equipment, medical supplies and in one crate what appeared to be a collection of cooled organs. They appeared to have been destroyed, a mixture of different coloured bloods ranging from red and green to blue and purple spilling out over the floor that had them all sick at the sight of it and what else they may find. Wall panels had been scratched, dented and all together ripped off in some parts, blood stains smeared over the wall like a sick painting. Moving through the ship showed no signs of life that they could see, the lights proved unreliable as they progressed, constantly flickering on and off making the atmosphere seem more eerie. Although they found no signs of life they found bodies, though 'bodies' seemed a bit of a stretch, more like misshapen mounds of flesh and bone that barely even looked like it could have ever been a person.

* * *

Making their way into the interior of the ship the squad began to hear noises, Shepard held up a hand to stop the squad behind him as they listened and turned towards one corridor where a set of two double doors stood. The red glow at the centre of each told them that they were locked and as they approached more blood stains and scratches seemed to almost completely cover each door. The unidentifiable noise from before became moans and groans, screeches and hisses as they stood there. Shepard motioned to Tali to hack the doors so that they could proceed.

"If there are people alive in there we have to do whatever we can to help them." Shepard didn't take his eyes off the door as he spoke and his voice remained quiet and level though still with a commanding tone. Shepard wanted to make it clear that the people were their priority and that Dr Saleon came second, thinking mostly about what Garrus wanted to do before in the original escape from the Citadel. Nobody really felt like talking but he had wanted to make that clear, the two Turians beside him nodded in acceptance their faces unreadable while Tali briefly turned to him to nod herself. Tali soon had the door unlocked and they all prepared themselves for what they were about to see, weapons at the ready. Shepard strode forwards and opened the doors, quickly passing through into what seemed to be a large warehouse like room. Crates were stacked in rows before them and higher than any of them could see, most likely containing even more harvested organs from any number of species. Now with no barrier between them the level of noise increased further and a scraping kind of shuffling sound could be heard. The squad moved forward slowly and quietly round the isle of crates, just as they were turning a corner there was the sound of running footsteps and Garrus saw a shadow of movement in the corner of his eye. Before any of them could react the being in the shadow jumped out from the darkness at Tali with a gurgling sort of snarl and collided with her, sending them both to the floor as she yelled. The shadow, which turned out to be an Asari, wrapped her limbs around Tali who tried to hold her at bay as the Asari tried to bite her. Nihlus moved quickly to her side and wrenched the Asari away from her, throwing her to the floor where she collapsed into a heap. Shepard moved to Tali's side to help her up, offering his hand which she gratefully accepted as she stood and although her voice was shaky she assured Shepard that no real damage had been done. They both turned to look at Tali's attacker, the Asari lay on the floor not bothering to try and move from where she was thrown. Her eyes' staring wide into nothing and the blue of her skin was sickly pale, numerous scars littering her body in the tatty old clothing. Blood was trickling down the side of her mouth as she murmured nonsense and took haggard breaths, many scratches littered her face, possibly self inflicted. She was as thin as a skeleton, her ribs were easily visible underneath the skin and it seemed like a light touch would break a bone. The hands which had attacked Tali were covered in blood, the deep blue colour suggesting that of another Asari or her own. There also seemed to be a number of large tumour like growths on her lower stomach, easily seen on her far to thin frame and disgusting yellow-like pus was leaking form each of them. Blood pooled around her upper arm from where a chuck of her arm was missing, which looked a lot like a bite mark and her leg was swollen with a large purple bruise, most likely broken from the way it bended. All in all, the Asari looked like death.

"Spirits." Garrus whispered as he looked down at her and Tali audibly gasped within her suit as she brought a hand up to her mouth. Shepard took slow careful steps towards the Asari, kneeling down next to her.

"Can you hear me?" He spoke softly, the Asari seemed to pay no attention to Shepard as he spoke, until he gently reached out to touch her. She reacted instantly, starting to scream and spasm upon the floor, swinging one arm violently. Shepard recoiled quickly at her reaction as they watched her, she seemed to have had a complete attitude change from how she was a moment ago when she attacked Tali. Nihlus met Shepard's eye with a silent question as one hand rested upon his pistol at the waist. Shepard took a breath before he schooled his features and nodded to Nihlus. Nihlus moved forward as he holstered his assault rifle and drew his pistol, coming to a stop beside the Asari and kneeling down.

"Spectre, what are you doing?" Tali questioned.

"Tali, there is nothing we can do for her." Garrus spoke to her quietly, coming to stand beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder to squeeze reassuringly.

Before anything else could be said Nihlus had moved as quickly as a flash, placing the gun near the side of the Asari's head before pulling the trigger and watching as the Asari stilled instantly before them. Nihlus reached forward and closed her eyes, whispering a prayer for her to find peace in the afterlife. Shepard stared at the body for a second longer before him and Nihlus moved back into their little group, Tali turned her gaze towards Shepard, a silent question in her stare.

"If there are others, like this, then we have no choice Tali. All that we can do is to help them end this nightmare and make sure that they are not forgotten. We will make sure that their suffering doesn't go unanswered." Shepard said, determination and calm seriousness expressed in his features. The emotional baggage, he'd deal with later. Tali took a moment before she replied, looking away to stare at a blank wall before she turned to Shepard again and spoke.

"I understand Commander, I don't like it but I understand." She said quietly, arms crossed as she held them close to her body.

"Ok, let's move on." Shepard ended the conversation, the quicker they got through this the better.

The situation didn't improve after the event with the Asari, although hopeful that they would find people that could be saved it wasn't meant to be. Throughout the large warehouse like room they found numerous people, but they all seemed to be near death and driven mad by whatever traumatic events they had experienced. Although most didn't seem to acknowledge the squad, there were some that tried to attack them and ran towards them once they were in sight. A quick biotic stasis from Shepard halted their progress, between Garrus and Nihlus they would quickly and painlessly end their suffering. All of the people they found were in terrible states of physical and mental health, a great deal more were dead. It appeared that once the people had been trapped in the room they had turned on each other and attacked viciously. The people they found were made up of great deal of races including Humans, Asari, Turians, Batarians and even some Drell. As Shepard, Garrus and Nihlus moved around the room checking the bodies and giving peace to the others, Tali moved from body to body giving small prayers similar to Nihlus from before. They didn't speak to one another as they progressed, too busy in their own thoughts to think of anything to say and by the time they left the room through another hacked door they were all feeling rather strong dark emotions in connection to Dr Saleon.

* * *

Eventually working through to the back of the ship they found a large office that according to Tali's drone scan contained one Salarian life form. Steeling himself and suppressing his emotion Shepard gestured to Tali to unlock the door, moving forward when the doors swished open. Compared to the rest of the ship the office was sparkling clean and didn't have a single object out of place. Behind the desk at the back of the room sat a Salarian, who matched the picture Garrus had shown him on his Omni-tool and so Shepard new for a fact that he was Dr Saleon. Dr Saleon jumped at their entrance as he turned for his desk console to stare at the squad.

"Oh thank you, you managed to stop those things and save my life." Dr Saleon stood from his desk, moving from behind it and half running towards them. "I managed to stop them and seal the doors, barricading myself in here but I wasn't sure how…" His words came to a stop as he took in the hard cold looks of the people standing before him.

"Dr Saleon." Shepard bit out.

"What? My name is Dr Heart, you must have mistaken me for someone else." The Salarian spoke rapidly, clearly panicked by the simple use of his name.

"There's no escape this time Doctor. I'd harvest your organs first, but we don't have the time." Garrus growled out, his tone venomous.

"Your insane, you can't let him do that its against your own laws." Dr Saleon turned his wide eyes to Shepard as the apparent leader of the small group.

"We will take him in and drop him off with the military." Shepard had his hands curled tightly into fists in an effort to keep his voice level.

"But we have him right here where we want him. We can't let him get away." Garrus argued, for the first time turning to face Shepard.

"If we kill him we will never know what his been up to, we're not doing this us but to get justice for those poor souls so that they aren't forgotten." Shepard turned his head slightly to look at Garrus as his control slipped slightly and some of his emotion came through, he made sure to keep Dr Saleon within his sight as well however.

"I've….. Okay, your right." Garrus seemed like he wanted to argue but after watching Shepard and thinking about it, he was right, with a sigh he turned to stare door Dr Saleon again.

You're a very lucky Salarian, you owe the Commander your life." Garrus spoke in a deathly tone, indicating how much he still would have very much liked to be handling this himself.

"Oh thank you very much." The doctor spoke sarcastically, clearly realising he wouldn't be getting away from them quite that easily. The doctor started to pivot as he drew a pistol from his side and brought it up to face the squad, Shepard's biotics flared up while Garrus and Nihlus went for their own weapons. Before anyone could really do anything, a loud shot echoed through the room as Dr Saleon was blasted off his feet and sent flying backwards into his desk. His body slumped down to the floor, blood pooling from the shotgun blast to his chest.

"I was hoping he'd give me an excuse." Tali spoke, anger lacing her tone as she lowered her shotgun to her side as the others turned to look at her.

"So he dies anyway, what was the point?" Garrus waved his arm at the room, looking back to Shepard for an answer.

"You can't predict how someone will react, but you can control how you will respond and that is what matters Garrus. If we start to take the law into our own hands like that, we become no better than him." Shepard explained, trying to get Garrus to understand the importance of what happened.

"I understand, I've never really though about it like that before just always seen it as people trying to get in my way. I've never met anyone like you Shepard" Garrus finished with a weak smile, clearly he had some things to think about. "I guess were done here."

"Lets get off this ship." Shepard suggested to which they all agreed, nobody wanted to stick around longer than they had to.

* * *

Being lost in thought, the journey back to the Normandy was quiet as they all went over in their minds what happened on the MSV Fedele. Boarding the Normandy those that turned to observe their entrance quickly turned back to their work, between Shepard's hard 'not in the mood' look and the almost palatable tenseness that could be felt from the others it was clear that the Squad wasn't happy with whatever had happened on the ship. The squad split up without words, Shepard and Nihlus heading to the comm room while Garrus and Tali made for the elevator. As Garrus stood at the elevator he briefly glanced to Shepard's unusually hard blank face as he walked past, wondering just how much he wasn't letting on about how this had affected him. In the comm room Shepard and Nihlus worked together to compile a report on what happened aboard Dr Saleon's ship and what they new of his past. Once they had both agreed on the finished document they got Joker to contact the nearest military ship, which happened to be of the Turian Hierarchy and were put through to their Commander. Although surprised to receive contact from the first Human Spectre and one of the Council's most decorated Turian Spectres she hid it well, getting straight to the heart of the matter for their reasoning in the communication. After explaining about the course of events that took place aboard the ship and sending over a copy of the report, the Turian Commander agreed to look into it and tow the ship back to Citadel space so that it could be investigated as their patrol route was heading that way regardless. Thanking her for the assistance they closed the transmission.

"Do you want to talk?" Nihlus asked, turning from the terminal screen to face Shepard.

"Not right now I need to go talk with Tali, of all of us I think she was most shaken up about all this. But thanks for the offer Nihlus." Shepard responded with a weary smile.

"Anytime Shepard." Nihlus nodded allowing Shepard to leave and head towards engineering to find Tali.

* * *

Shepard stepped out of the elevator into the cargo bay, as he walked past the Mako he gave it a quick glance. Garrus for once didn't seem to be attached to the vehicle and wasn't in sight, though that honestly was a good thing. He didn't real feel like having the sort of conversation that he new would come about with Garrus, the Turian always seemed to know when he was covering something up. On the other hand he needed to speak with Tali, at the very least to check up on her. Shepard would feel terrible if he didn't just because of his own avoidance of the subject and if her behaviour on the ship had been any indication then she would need someone to talk to right about now. After he walked into engineering he was again met with an empty console where Tali would usually be, though he really shouldn't have been surprised considering. Enquiring with the engineers revealed that they hadn't seen Tali since she left with Shepard earlier on their mission which then led to Shepard backtracking into the cargo bay. Eventually Shepard tracked her down in one of the storage rooms closer to the back of the Normandy sitting alone on the edge of a large crate containing supplies.

"Commander." Tali looked up upon Shepard's entrance quietly acknowledging him.

"Tali, do you want to talk?" Shepard asked hesitantly, unsure really of what he should do. Tali nodded silently so Shepard took a seat beside her, clasping his hands in front of him wondering where he should start. However it didn't really matter as Tali spoke for him.

"Why did he do it?" She asked, obviously referring to Dr Saleon.

"He wanted to make money." Shepard took a breath before he continued. "Dr Saleon didn't have a soul, I can't pretend to know why a man like that would do such a thing just for money."

"I've seen death before, fighting geth and mercenaries your bound to see it a lot. But when we saw those poor people aboard that ship, to think what that bosh'tet did to them and the suffering he put them through just because they had nothing else left, it makes me sick." Her arms were rigid as she grasped the side of the crate, the anger in her voice mixed with sadness.

"Tali we did everything we could, now he'll never be able to hurt anyone else ever again and we can put the memory of his victims to rest. They won't be forgotten and you shouldn't forget that you did a great thing today." Shepard smiled gently, putting emphasis on his words to get their significance across.

"Thank you commander." Tali whispered after a couple of minutes of silence looking up from where she had been staring at the floor to Shepard's face.

"Call me Shepard, everyone else does." Shepard said lightly as he felt the mood shift.

"Thank you Shepard." Tali said, seeming a lot happier than before. Before Shepard could say anything else he found his arms fall of Quarian as she gave him a fierce hug, which after a moments hesitation he returned. Tali then almost seemed to squeak as she pulled back, seemingly embarrassed by her actions as Shepard grinned at her. Shepard continued talking as Tali got over her embarrassment, a short while later he left the room as she told him after the events of the day she felt exhausted and what she really needed was a good sleep once she had a little more alone time.

* * *

Shepard leaned against the back of the shower as the water cascaded down his body as he stared at the opposite wall in thought. One of the perks of being 'Commander' was definitely the private quarters, specifically the shower and being in the military it was the simplest pleasures that you found yourself craving. After speaking to Tali he had gone straight for the elevator back towards the upper levels and unlike him not bothered stopping to talk to anyone. When he had started to make his way across the living quarters he saw a glimpse of blue Turian armour that almost made him change course before he shook his head of the thoughts and continued. His head had and still felt overloaded and he really needed some time to himself otherwise he felt that he may say something stupid, which was definitely not something he would want anyone to see let alone Garrus. Shepard sighed as he eventually turned the water of and began to dry himself, the crew certainly new that something had 'gone down' as such on the mission though none of them had the nerve to ask Shepard at least when he had run into anyone. Discarding the towel and slowly pulling on his casual Alliance uniform he wondered how long it would take before everyone new, not that they were keeping what had happened some big secret from everyone. It was just that the Normandy was like a school made up of gossip loving children most of the time he thought with a slight smirk. His mind supplying the rumours of him and Ashley that seemed to have caught on like wildfire, which honestly suited Shepard fine, that way there would be less questions asked directly of him and he mused that by the same time tomorrow everyone on the ship would know the details of the last mission. A small part of Shepard realised the childishness of his own actions, but he couldn't really bring himself to care at that point as he closed the draw he had taken his Alliance top from and collapsed onto the bed.

Shepard lay there for a long while trying to get to sleep but no matter which way he shifted he couldn't get his mind to slow down, he kept playing back memories of the last mission over and over no matter how much he tried to distract himself. Eventually, now staring up at the ceiling again Shepard figured that he'd watch a Rom/Com vid that he liked, not that he would admit that to anyone, or he would even resort to doing paper work to get his mind off of other unpleasant thoughts. Just as he sat up to slide over to his desk there was a knock at the door which had him stop and stare for a moment at the entrance. It was one thing to avoid people, but if someone was seeking him out he couldn't refuse that and if it wasn't something that demanded attention that very minute he'd tell them that he would see to it in the morning. Making up his mind he stood and walk towards the door, cautiously unlocking it and allowing the door to slide open. Before him stood Garrus holding a bowl of something steaming in one hand with the other resting upon his side, he had cleaned his armour and now it looked like he had never gone anywhere that day. Shepard's own armour lay it a stack in the corner of his room, after methodically cleaning it he had just dumped it deciding to sort the rest out later.

"What's that for?" Shepard asked eying the bowl warily.

"I noticed that you haven't bothered to eat anything so I bought you some dinner." Garrus told him, holding out the bowl for him to take.

"Thank you but I'm not in the mood Garrus, I'd rather just be left alone." He sighed.

"No can do I'm afraid you still need to eat something, it's not wise to skip meals and you should stick to that when you have the opportunity to." Garrus said taking on the air of a parent talking with a child.

"I could order you to leave." Shepard pointed out to him when he refused to budge under his stare.

"Will you though?" He countered, Shepard thought about it for a moment before he stood to side of the door and gestured with an arm for Garrus to enter. Garrus walked through with a self satisfied smirk and the corner of Shepard's mouth tilted up in amusement before he controlled himself. Garrus set the bowl down on Shepard's desk before sitting himself down in a spare chair and leaning backwards.

"You're seriously going to watch me eat it?" Shepard folded his arms at Garrus action.

"I knew all the tricks you use as a kid to avoid eating something you don't want, you can't get by me." He winked. Shepard just rolled his eyes at the action before taking a seat, he might as well get it over with. The stew that the cook had made was surprisingly good and for saying that he hadn't really felt like eating anything he finished it all off. Garrus continued to talk saying that he knew Shepard would be hungry and that he was always right to which Shepard had stuck his middle finger up, when Garrus asked what that meant it made Shepard chuckle.

"Even you can be right every once in a while, don't make a habit of it." Shepard pushed the bowl away from him as he looked over at Garrus.

"If that makes you feel better." He shrugged. "How are you doing with what happened on the MSV Fedele Shepard?" Garrus asked, looking concerned.

"I don't want to talk about it." Shepard tensed as he held a hand out to cut Garrus off.

"You can't bottle things up indefinitely, it will only make you feel worse and I'm willing to listen." Garrus pressed, sitting forward.

"Garrus please, I'm fine, I don't need to talk about it." Shepard ground out.

"Talking with you managed to clear up Tali's mind, she felt a lot better being able to vent to you and put things into perspective. Try your own advice." Garrus pointed a talon at Shepard.

You know what they say, those that give good advice are usually the worst at following it." He retorted.

"Shepard." Garrus said, staring at him. Shepard sighed looking away from him for a few moments as he thought before he stood and went to sit on the bed.

"I hate feeling useless." Shepard said, not looking at Garrus.

"What do you mean?" Garrus asked gentler than before.

"I wish we could have saved them, after… after Mindoir I promised myself I wouldn't let that happen to anyone else. Thinking of the people that were affected by Dr Saleon, the families ruined." Shepard clenched his fists into the fabric of his uniform. Garrus didn't reply but after a moment he felt the air shift beside him as Garrus sat next to him.

"Dr Saleon chose people specifically that didn't have families and people that wouldn't be noticed if they disappeared, those desperate enough for the money." He explained.

"Oh I hadn't realised that. I know its stupid, as a soldier I should know better but it always hits me hard when I lose an innocent person." Shepard smiled weakly. Garrus's hand came forward resting upon Shepard's forearm and giving It a comforting squeeze, Shepard looked up surprised at Garrus.

"Shepard I can't pretend to know what you have been through but you are one great soldier. Where most people see a lost cause, no real solution, you go in and get an impossible result, you have saved a great many people that I'm sure of. You're the most infuriating yet incredible human I have ever met." Garrus told him exactly what he thought.

"Garrus, thank you." Shepard gave an honest smile, laying his hand over Garrus's. Garrus gave a smile back, mandibles expressing his emotion. Looking between them Shepard finally seemed to realise Garrus's proximity to him and averted his eyes as thoughts popped into his head. He looked at Garrus again as he was thinking, the Turian in question tilting his head to the side as he looked at Shepard's expression. Shepard must have lost it if he was truly considering this, but right now in the moment with Garrus sitting here listening to his stupid ramblings and understand him he was actually thinking about telling Garrus that he was attracted to him. A wide range of responses opened up as Shepard thought this, ranging from the cringingly blunt to the overly subtle and everything in between. Even though he had no idea what he could say to get onto the topic, but determined to say something Shepard opened his mouth to speak again when he was interrupted.

"Shepard you're needed in the Comm room, the Council is on the line and they say it's urgent." Joker's voice rang out over the quiet through the speakers. Shepard flopped backwards on the bed with a groan at the interruption and Garrus chuckled in amusement at his actions.

* * *

**AN:**** That's that. I'm surprised, the chapter ended up much longer than I thought it would but hey I'm not complaining. I started writing this chapter without necessarily having a theme on the MSV Fedele, but as I started to write it and looked back at what I had done so far at that point it was quite grim I think? Something along those lines away. I decided that I like how it was going quite a lot so I kept that theme going throughout the mission and I think that I managed to pull it off. I only had a vague idea on how I was going to deal with the test subjects before I started writing the chapter as in the game they're basically renamed Thorian Creepers but after I started writing it everything just became a lot clearer and it was just obvious to me on how I should handle it. I quite like this chapter but I'm also quite aware of a few points which are quite different from what I've done so far, so I hope that you like it. Also saw a lot of E3 related news lately, some awesome and some not so awesome stuff cracking off unfortunately but definitely a lot of stuff I'm keeping an eye on. **

**Next Chapter: Virmire. **


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